


Dragon, Dragon, Burning Bright

by Dangerously_Demonic



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Established Relationship, Frostmorph, Implied/Referenced Slavery, When Ashes Falls AU, in the background - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:20:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23866657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangerously_Demonic/pseuds/Dangerously_Demonic
Summary: When an old friend of Clayton's calls him up in the middle of the night, asking for help, Loki and him quickly put their heads together. What better place to help than Loki's dragon sanctuary? It's quiet, peaceful, and has dragons.Who could say no to dragons?
Relationships: Loki & Original Male Character, Loki/Original Male Character
Comments: 11
Kudos: 11





	1. Midnight Calls

After a freak accident resulted in nerve damage to his hands, Dustin knew he’d eventually spiral down. With a near constant tremor to his hands he had difficulty holding a sniper rifle, or any firearm for that matter, steady. Given that he’d built his bounty hunting career off of being one of the top snipers in the galaxy? He was out of the game. Sure, he’d always thrown around the idea of retiring, but he’d wanted it to be on _his_ terms, not forced onto him.

So, when he was glaring at the wide variety of alcoholic bottles on his kitchen counter in between dry heaving into the sink, he knew he needed help. The problem with this idea? Dustin hated asking for help. Unfortunately, there were only a few people he trusted and many had either dropped off the radar or were dead. The saying ‘beware an old man in a young man’s game’ came to mind.

Still, he’d kept in loose contact with Clayton over the years. They’d both worked under the bounty hunting outfit Arkane and occasionally ran missions together till Dustin had split off to do his own thing. Well, it was more that the boss had gotten tired of his mouthiness, but that was beside the point. After Arkane went under, he’d still run the occasional mission with Clayton when the half human needed help. By that point, Clayton had decided to work under the name ‘Sabaton’, something Dustin gave him endless shit for.

And then it was essentially announced that Clayton had turned out to be a King of an alien race when the man publicly announced his marriage to Loki of Asgard. Just from what he knew about the man, the whole thing caught Dustin off guard. The guy had shown minimal interest in…Well, just about anyone and what few relationships he’d seen Clayton be in, they’d all ended badly.

So, Dustin bit the metaphorical bullet and contacted the man, bracing himself for whatever might happen. When Clayton answered the holocall, he looked half asleep. “If you were anyone else, I’d be cussing you out.”

“Yeah, sorry about waking you up.” Dustin bit his lip and glanced away for a moment before looking back to Clayton. “I…I need help.”

Three words, easy to say, but actually saying them out loud together made his chest clench. “I’m not doing too hot.”

Immediately, Clayton looked concerned and straightened up. “What’s wrong?”

“Long, shitty story short I got my hands fucked up and I can’t hold a rifle steady anymore.” He looked down at his hands and the subtle tremor they had. However, he didn’t know if it was the slight tremor they always had, or if it was from anxiety. “It’s…Either I ask for help or I’m going to drink myself to death. And you’re really one of the only people I trust.”

“Okay. Can I put you on hold while I go wake Loki up and talk to him? I can have Xena talk to you, if you want?”

It made sense that Clayton would want to ask his husband before making a decision. Truthfully, it sounded like they were a good couple. However, the mention of the sassy AI caused him to look up and give a small smile. “Yeah, I would like to talk to her.”

Clayton disappeared and was replaced by random bits of code that flowed past. “Hello, Dustin.”

As she always did, the AI spoke with a vaguely synthetic, accentless, feminine voice. He’d butted heads with her a number of times, but tonight? He welcomed her. “Keeping Clayton out of trouble?”

“That’s largely up to Loki, if I’m honest.”

“Y’know. I’m really surprised that he got married. Didn’t seem to be the type.” He pulled his glass of water closer; he’d poured the last bit of his alcohol down the sink.

“They do well together. I was initially suspicious of Loki, but he won me over.” She paused for a moment before speaking a bit softer. “Are you stable, for the moment?”

Dustin sighed and weighed his answer for a moment, having a strong feeling he knew what the AI was asking him. “Yes. I’m not going to try to kill myself, if that’s what you’re asking. I just…Kinda realized what I’m doing to myself when I was not quite puking my brains out this morning. All my other contacts have either fallen off the face of the galaxy or are dead.”

“Clayton’s back.”

When the holocall suddenly shifted, he looked up at Clayton and patiently waited. Clayton offered a faint, tired smile. “Okay. Talked things over with Loki and we came up with a few ideas. First, do you still have your ship or do we need to come pick you up?”

“I still have it. You know I couldn’t part with that hunk of junk.”

Clayton laughed and grinned. “I figured. So, as a project, Loki runs a dragon sanctuary. They’re actually shapeshifters and have human level intelligence, but most of them have been freed from shitty situations, mostly slavery of some sort. It’s pretty much a place where they can recover in peace, then head off on their own…If they want. Basically, he’s wondering if you’d be interested in working there. You’d have your own place, get paid…That sort of thing. I don’t know how bad your hands are, but we can work around that. It’s a lot of manual labor, but he’s kinda thinking it’ll help you get your mind off things.”

Whatever he’d been expecting, it definitely wasn’t an offer like this. “I’m honestly just limited on stuff that requires a steady hand.” Dustin cracked a slight grin. “So, don’t expect me to be drawing anything.”

“…If it helps convince you, there’s usually a few orphan dragonets that need attention.” He gave Dustin a knowing look.

“Low blow, dude.” They both knew he was a sucker for anything ‘baby’.

“So, is that a yes?”

“Yeah. Give me a week to get packed and all the shit here squared away?” Dustin sighed at the nod he was given. “Thanks man, I owe you.”

“Nah. You’re a friend. I’m willing to do shit for friends. I’ll have Xena send you to coordinates. Give me a call if anything else pops up or if you need help moving. Otherwise? I’ll see you in a week.” Clayton gave him a slight nod before disconnecting the call.

Dustin glanced around the small apartment he lived in, knowing that it wouldn’t take more than a day or two to pack everything up, but he also kinda wanted to screw his head on straight before he showed up.

A week to the day, Dustin stepped off his ship and curiously peered around the landing pad. Overall, the place was largely undeveloped with gravel paths leading to many of the buildings. Still, he liked the look of the place. It was heavily forested with a cooler climate and lacked the smell of pollution inherent in so many developed planets. Moments later, he spotted Clayton heading towards him. The man hadn’t changed much the last time they saw each other. Next to him was Loki.

“Still rocking the Bug Thing, huh?” He shook Clayton’s hand and looked to Loki. “Never thought I’d see this guy married and settled down. Anyway. I’m Dustin.”

Loki shook his hand and briefly glanced him over. “We thought we’d show you to where you’ll be staying and then give you a quick tour of the place. I know Clayton bribed you with the promise of dragonets, but we don’t have any, thankfully.”

“That’s alright. So, could you explain the whole dragon thing to me?” Dustin walked alongside them and pointed out the fencing which clearly made up a pen. “Like, Clayton mentioned them being sentient, so why do you have them penned up?”

“Certainly.” Loki’s eyes followed where Dustin had pointed. “There’s a fair few different species of dragons, and not all of them are sentient. The ones the sanctuary tries to help are, but if they’re in their dragon form, they’re nearly indistinguishable from a non-sentient dragon. So, it’s largely a safety precaution until we know what we’re dealing with. On top of things, many of the dragons are flighty and mistrusting, and aren’t used to the idea of someone wanting to help them. It keeps them in a safe spot where we can earn their trust. Finally, some of them come with dragonets and the parent or parents aren’t always capable of chasing them down.”

“And being in the pen keeps the dragonets from getting into trouble?” Dustin finished.

“Exactly. What you’re seeing here are the ICU-Quarantine pens. They’re typically smaller than the living areas, assuming the dragons want to live close to the facilities. Early on, we didn’t have fencing for the healthy dragons, but ended up having issues with the drakes getting into dominance spats. The hens are less inclined to get into fights, but if you have one who’s pregnant, has eggs, or dragonets, they can be more violent than the drakes.”

Loki brought up a planetary map on his wrist communicator and pointed out different areas as he spoke. “There are communal living areas on different parts of the planet, so, the ones who typically live in the living areas here are the ones with health or emotional issues…Or they’re being stepped down from the ICU pens and aren’t quite ready to join a community yet. They’re free to come and go as they wish, and the fenced off area acts as their own territory without them feeling the need to defend it from other dragons.”

“That’s actually pretty neat. How big are the ICU pens?” Dustin glanced towards a pen, hoping to catch sight of a dragon and felt disappointed when he didn’t see anything.

“Three to five acres. The bigger the dragon, or the bigger the family, the bigger the pen we put them in. Meanwhile, the living area pens can be 20 to 100 acres. Several members of the staff are dragons, themselves, and provide input on the care.” Loki finally stopped at a four-story building and briefly gestured at it before leading Dustin inside. “Here’s where you’ll be staying. Second through fourth floors are apartments while the first floor is a commons area.”

“No roommates?” He asked, curiously.

“Not unless you want one. It’d be a bit cramped since these are designed for one person only.” He finally stopped at a door and handed Dustin a card. “This is your apartment. The card is just until we can have maintenance enter a passcode for your door.”

Curiously, Dustin stepped inside and found himself pleasantly surprised. The apartment had already been furnished with furniture and comprised of a living area, a small kitchen area, a balcony, and a separate bedroom/bathroom. Happily, he dumped his things on the couch and gave the other two men a bright grin. “I like it.”

“Good. If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you the dragon living areas.”

Thankfully, the sanctuary had roads set up and they didn’t have to walk, something that had mildly concerned Dustin when he found out the living areas were located a solid five miles away. Still, a short trip later and he found himself standing in one of the shelters that connected to one of the larger pens. The main area of the shelter was large and covered with bedding while the ceiling had lights along with some sort of vent. “So, they live in this?”

“Yes and no. Some dragons are more comfortable in their dragon form opposed to being human. Others don’t care.” Walking to a massive display panel on the wall, Loki pointed out the settings. “Here, they can control the lights, heating, and air conditioning. Activating either of the latter will cause a force field to activate to help keep the shelter climate controlled.”

“So, what if they want to be human?”

This time, Loki led him to a door. Inside was a similar set up to Dustin’s apartment. “As I said, it really depends on the dragon.”

“Sounds legit.” Finally, he faced Loki and Clayton. “So, when do you want me to start?”

“I was going to offer to let you settle in, but if you’re wanting to start working…” Loki glanced at Clayton. “Who do you suggest putting him with?”

“Kaitlyn. She won’t tolerate his shit, but she’ll teach him a lot about being around dragons. Plus, she knows the dragons pretty well and might be able to find one to pair him up with.”

“What do you mean ‘pair me up with’?” He eyed the two, a bit warily.

“Dragons are very social beings and prefer to be in groups. Many of these dragons have abuse heavy backgrounds with quite a few having been stolen as children, so they didn’t get the proper socialization or they’re simply mistrustful. Being paired up with a dragon means you’ll be responsible for that dragon’s care and it’s healthier for them because they’re not seeing a different person each week. So, you’ll get rotated around the pens until you find one you click with. The ultimate goal is for them to Pack Bond, which is their way of saying someone is a close friend.”

Loki finally gave a slight shrug. “It’s essentially to give them a spot of stability. This is one of those recommendations the dragons made and we’ve noticed a massive improvement in overall behavior, as well as a decrease in self-destructive behavior.”

“And if I don’t click with one?” Dustin was still side eyeing Loki a bit.

“Then you’ll just keep rotating around the pens. Otherwise, I’ll likely assign you to a dragonet since they require around the clock care. Usually, we try to find a dragon willing to adopt, this tends to be a dragon who already has dragonets or has recently lost. Sometimes, there will be a non-parent who’s willing to adopt. Unfortunately, we can’t always find someone willing to adopt, or the dragonet is in too bad of health.” Loki quietly sighed. “I hate it when we get dragonets in. They’re usually in bad shape and we’ve lost more than I care to admit because of that. We try, but…”

“You win some, you lose some.” Clayton finally spoke up, having stayed quiet for most of the tour. “It sucks when one dies, but it’s always worth it when you get to see them playing.”

Hesitantly, Dustin spoke. “I’m…Not sure if I’d be able to handle that. I think for right now I’ll just stick to rotating around the pens. Maybe later down the road.”

“Of course! I wouldn’t assign you a sick one, regardless. Rather, I’d assign one that’s doing well and simply needs to be raised.” He was quick to shoot down the idea that he’d give Dustin something that needed a lot of care. “I’ll send a message to Kaitlyn. She’s the lead doctor here and you’ll be able to see a lot of the day to day activities. From there, I’ll put you with one of the caretakers so you can have some more hands on experience, since I expect Kaitlyn will just have you watching.”

“Kaitlyn starts her rounds at 8am sharp, so you’ll want to be at the clinic around 7:30ish. You’ll know her when you see her.” Clayton supplied, helpfully.

Dustin was a bit unsure of that idea, but simply filed away the information and used the rest of the day to get settled into his apartment. Honestly, the biggest adjustment was how quiet the place was. Outside of the calls of the native wildlife, the only other thing he occasionally heard were low rumbles which he assumed to be the dragons in the nearby ICU pens.


	2. The First Day

The next morning, he had a quick breakfast and chased it down with a cup of coffee before heading to the clinic. There, he found a handful of people sitting around a rickety table. Some were human, others were different alien races, and two appeared human but had reptilian eyes. Perhaps those were the dragons Loki had mentioned. Sitting among them was a woman with vividly blue hair, and Dustin hazarded that she might be Kaitlyn. “Are you Kaitlyn?”

She glanced up at him and nodded at the shirt he wore that he'd gotten years ago as memorabilia from some amusement place. “Nice shirt. Been there a few times…And yes, I am. I’m assuming you’re Dustin?”

“Bingo.”

“Good. You’re early. I like that. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really like dealing with people who don’t have medical experience. It means I have to try to talk in layman’s terms. Keep up and you might learn a few things.” After standing up, she grabbed her tablet and was already headed for the door before he could really react. “In terms of patients, we don’t have very many to look at today. The ICU pens are relatively empty, which is a godsend because it means most of the dragons have been stepped down to the living areas.”

He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her, but didn’t say anything about his lack of medical experience. Instead, he focused on what they’d be doing today. “Okay. So, how many dragons will we be looking at today and why are they in the ICU pens?”

Kaitlyn passed him the tablet which displayed three names. “Three. Gamma, Pleiades, and Tauri. Loki likes giving them names after stars or constellations until they feel comfortable in shifting and telling us their actual name. We’ll be seeing Gamma, first. She’s recovering from severe dehydration and today’s visit is to see if she’s capable of being stepped down to one of the living areas. Pleiades will be next. He has a severe bone infection in his left front leg and we’re trying to save the limb. He’s not able to shift because of how weak he is and the pain it causes him, but he’s cognitive and has okayed amputation if we can’t save his leg. Tauri will be the one you might not get to see.”

Slowly, Dustin nodded as she spoke, then looked up when Tauri was mentioned. “Why? That bad of shape?”

“No. There’s technically nothing wrong with him, physically. His village was attacked and he was sent to the markets. I think he’s only about fifteen or sixteen, but he’s very skittish.” She frowned, heavily. “So, right now, it’s a case of showing that he can trust us. Because of that, we’re trying to keep the changes to his care as minimized as possible.”

“Poor kid. There aren’t any other dragons who are willing to have him as a roommate?”

“Unfortunately, no. Most are dealing with their own issues or already have children to raise.” She finally stopped at a pen. “This is Gamma’s pen. You’ll be able to come into this one and Pleiades’ pen. I’m still not sure about Tauri’s pen.”

“Gotcha.” Curiously, he followed Kaitlyn into the pen. There, Gamma laid down under a tree and stood out sharply against the greenery thanks to her rust colored feathers that were occasionally punctuated by a spot of turquoise.

“Good morning, Gamma.” Kaitlyn greeted, then gestured at Dustin. “This is Dustin. He’ll be shadowing me this week, if that’s okay?”

When Gamma gave a slight nod, she continued. “Good. Come on Dustin.”

He followed after her and stood awkwardly off to the side while Kaitlyn asked a series of yes and no questions which predominantly had to do with how Gamma felt, how she’d been eating and drinking, then various bodily functions. Finally, Kaitlyn began her physical and continued asking various yes or no questions. By this point in time, Dustin was having a hard time paying attention. Sure, he was capable of sitting or lying in one spot for hours on end, but it was because he was physically involved in something. Here, he was simply observing and wasn’t really being involved in anything.

“Alright, Gamma. You’ve really improved and I think you’re ready to move out of the ICU area to one of the living areas.” Kaitlyn started but tilted her head slightly at Gamma’s apparent indecisiveness. “If you feel ready. It’s fine if you want to stay here for a bit longer, but if we get a sudden influx of new dragons you’ll have to be moved out. If you’re on the fence about it, I can have someone come in and show you pictures. Would you like me to do that?”

Gamma seemed to consider this before finally nodding then tilting her head inquisitively at Kaitlyn who took the tablet from Dustin and made a quick note. “I sent the note to the person who’s in charge of your care this week. Do you need anything else?”

After Gamma shook her head, Kaitlyn wished her well and led Dustin out of the pen. “Most of what I do is interview the dragons to see how they’re doing and relay any changes that need to be made to the staff. It’s easier for me because my husband is a dragon, so it’s easier for them to trust me since I smell like one.”

“I was going to ask how you knew what Gamma was asking, but I guess that answers my question.”

“They’re very expressive with their body language and half of how they talk is with body language. The dragons on the staff are better with using spoken language than a lot of the patients, but you’ll still see them using body language to talk to each other, along with non-human sounds. They’re the best ones to talk to if you’re curious.” Upon reaching another pen, she stopped and faced Dustin. “Did Loki tell you what Pack Bonding is?”

“He summarized it as basically a ‘very good friend’.” Then, Dustin shrugged a bit. “I’ll admit that I don’t know very much about dragons. I’m an old friend of Clayton’s and we really haven’t visited in the past few years.”

“It’s not too surprising. They’re a fairly rare race who tries to keep to themselves. I mostly asked because Pleiades has Pack Bonded to his caretaker and there’s a good chance Hamar is already in there.” After unlocking the access door, she headed for the shelter. Inside was a dragon a bit lankier in appearance than Gamma, covered in sandy colored feathers with darker brown mottles. The feathers on his front left leg had sloughed off to reveal tan colored scales and an angry looking surgery spot near his elbow. A young man sat in the shavings next to Pleiades’ head and sleepily rubbed the dragon’s brow.

“How’s he doing Hamar?” Kaitlyn asked quietly, as she crouched down to check on the injury. “This is Dustin, by the way.”

Hamar gave Dustin a slight nod before focusing on Kaitlyn. “Better, I think. The sedative helped and he slept all night. He ate a bit of his dinner last night, too.”

“Well, good news. The swelling is going down and his temperature is better. I still don’t know if he’ll be able to keep his leg, but he’s doing better than what he was. Is he moving around any?”

“No, he’s taking your orders seriously, I think. Honestly, he just doesn’t want me to leave so I’ve been having Tyler bring me food.” Looking back to Dustin, he offered a tired smile. “New?”

Kaitlyn only nodded and continued her examination while Dustin returned the smile he was given. “Yeah. I got here last night. Loki and Clayton wanted me to shadow Kaitlyn for a bit. So, I’m just kinda hanging out. Lots of stuff to learn.”

“It’s not too bad and you’ll settle in pretty quickly.” Hamar was about to say more when Pleiades made a low rumble which immediately took priority. “Hey, hey. It’s just Kaitlyn and someone she’s training.”

Pleiades slowly opened his eyes, and blearily looked around amber colored eyes that were glassy and unfocused. Finally, he quietly huffed and carefully shifted himself to get a bit more comfortable before closing his eyes again. With his charge settled again, Hamar looked back up at Kaitlyn, a somewhat concerned expression on his face. “That’s pretty much all he’s been doing if he’s not eating.”

“It’s likely the sedative.” Moving from the dragon’s front leg, she crouched down by his head to check his gums. “His coloring looks good. Is he drinking water okay?”

Hamar nodded. “Better than how he eats. Thinking some sort of liquid supplement?”

“You know me well.” Looking to Dustin, Kaitlyn explained. “Dragons have high calorie needs, for several reasons. It’s mostly tied to their enhanced healing ability, though. They’re rarely sick and can recover easily from most injuries, but that healing ability requires energy. If they’re weakened from poor nutrition, constant injury, or anything that puts them under stress for long periods of time? The healing ability will just short circuit and stop working. Considering the ones we get are usually out of bad situations? It takes some work to get them back on their feet.”

By this point, Dustin had crouched down to get a better look at Pleiades. “He’ll be alright, though?”

“Pretty sure. It’s just if he’ll keep his leg or not.” Standing back up, she looked to Hamar. “I’ll put in an order for a liquid supplement for him. If he wakes up before lunch, ask him which flavor he thinks he’d be interested in and let the clinic know. Otherwise, we’ll just pick something at random. Also, this evening it’s supposed to get a bit chilly, so you know.”

“Will do, and I’ll make sure to turn the heat on for him.” He gave the dozing dragon a concerned look. “I’ll let you know if his condition changes.”

“I know you will.” She gently squeezed Hamar’s shoulder before leaving the pen. Looking to Dustin, she briefly frowned. “Any questions, so far?”

“I guess the difference between Gamma and Pleiades’ appearance. He looked like he was lankier than her and his feathers weren’t as thick.” Dustin furrowed his brows slightly as he recalled more differences. “The flight feathers were shaped differently, too.”

“That’s pretty observant.” She commented as she glanced over at him.

He grinned. “Former bounty hunter. The paycheck is in the details.”

“Former?”

His grin faded and then he sighed before holding out his hands to show her the tremor they had, then turned his hands over so she could see the still pink surgery scars. “…Work accident.”

“Ah.” Knowing better than to press him for answers, she circled back to his original question. “Well, to answer your question, there’s different sub-types of dragons, just like there are humans, each with their own customs, religions, and views. Gamma is a Plains Dragon. They favor hunting at night since the feathers on their wings are designed to help them fly quietly and also why she’s heavier bodied than Pleiades: she would use her weight to pin her prey down so she could kill it.”

“Okay, that’s fucking neat. What about him?”

“Desert Dragon. That’s why his feathers are thinner: so he doesn’t overheat. He’s more of a glider, too. Something you probably didn’t see because of how he was positioned, but he has a small bit of webbing between his toes to prevent him from sinking into the sand.” Kaitlyn shot him a grin. “We even have a couple water dragons that live by the big lake to the south. Gamma is pretty easy going, from what I’ve been able to tell. When she decides to shift back, she might be willing to tell you about Plains Dragons.”

“That’s even neater.” With two of the dragons down, Dustin turned his thoughts to the third dragon, Tauri. “Do you want me to stay outside the pen?”

Kaitlyn stared at the access door in front of her and lightly thumbed the edge of the tablet. “No, come in with me. We won’t be approaching him, anyway. I’m mostly just making sure he’s keeping weight. Just stay behind me and don’t make any sudden movements. He’s very skittish.”

“Gotcha.”

Curiously, he followed Kaitlyn into the pen. Immediately, he knew this dragon was different from the others. Where the prior two were feathered, this one was a combination of feathers and fluffy down. Then, instead of being a brown color, he was a dark grey with lighter grey mottles. However, the most noticeable thing about him, was the surprising lack of wings. Dustin wanted to ask, but wisely kept his mouth shut, especially when Tauri suddenly flailed and scrambled onto his feet before hissing defensively.

“It’s okay. You know who I am.” Kaitlyn slowly gestured at Dustin. “This is Dustin. He’s not going to do anything and is just watching.”

Tauri simply hissed again before turning and quickly slinking off into the undergrowth. Kaitlyn didn’t go after him and instead turned to Dustin. “See what I mean? He looks okay, but I haven’t been able to do a physical. He’s eating and drinking, so that’s the best I can ask for.”

“Why doesn’t he have any wings?” Dustin asked as he followed her out of the pen. “Or is that just his subtype?”

“We don’t know. Loki’s done research and tried questioning Tauri, but wasn’t able to get much information out of him beyond his home being attacked. So, we’re not sure if his wings were removed, if it’s some type of deformity, or he’s part of some subtype Loki doesn’t have books on.” She sighed and looked towards the pen door. “The youngsters are always the worst. Dragons are slow to mature and often aren’t considered mature until about 25 or so. He’s really still a kid.”

“Wait, so Loki can talk to them? How?”

“Oh. He has this little ability called ‘All Speak’, the lucky bastard.” Kaitlyn grouched as she started back to the clinic. “Lets him talk to any sentient species and as far as they’re concerned, he’s speaking their language when he uses it. Anyway, I’m done for the day. I just need to write up my notes and have my daily meeting with the caretakers.”

Dustin was wise enough to know when he’d been dismissed and simply watched her walk away for a moment before heading back towards the apartment building. However, before he reached it, Loki intercepted him. “Morning Loki.”

“Good morning. I hope Kaitlyn wasn’t too harsh? She can be a bit overbearing at times with newer people, but I can’t deny her experience.” He moved to walk alongside the other man and watched him, curiously.

“Nah. I kinda learned a few things today. Looking forward to tomorrow.” Dustin looked away for a moment before looking back to Loki with a grin. “Unfortunately, I’m already attached to them.”

“Well, it would seem Clayton won that bet.”


	3. New Arrivals

It wasn’t until the third day that it really dawned on Dustin that dragons weren’t really that big. Much like Clayton, Dustin had originally been from Earth and managed to land himself in space, so he grew up with the mythological idea of dragons being these massive, fire breathing, scaly things. Apparently, there _were_ some dragons like that, but not the ones at the sanctuary, nor were they usually sentient.

None of the dragons breathed fire, or had any sort of breath weapon, for that matter. Most stood at six to seven foot at the shoulder, in their dragon form, and they all had feathers. The exception being the water dragons, but given that they predominantly lived in water, it made sense.

Still, just by hanging around them, he realized that they reminded him of a weird combination of feline and bird. Many of the head tilts reminded him of a curious bird, as did the various feather crest movements, but it was how they’d lounge out in the sun that reminded him of how cats acted. Most of them, anyway. While Gamma had finally agreed to be moving to a living area pen and Pleiades was slowly recovering, Tauri remained skittish. He always seemed paranoid and rarely came out of hiding longer than what it took him to eat. Considering what Dustin knew about him, he couldn’t blame the youngster and honestly felt bad for him.

New knowledge about the dragons aside, the first week still proved to be pretty boring. Despite being only allowed to observe, he still learned a lot and came to appreciate Kaitlyn’s sense of humor. Most of her initial attitude towards him had been due to how he’d, essentially, been fast tracked into working at the sanctuary without any of the usual background checks. She’d later apologized after talking to Clayton and Loki about the whole deal. It probably helped that he was a bottomless pit of questions when it came to the dragons.

Thankfully, once his week with Kaitlyn was up, he got tossed into the general care for the dragons after a day long orientation. Given that he was the newbie, he was assigned to Tyler as an assistant. This meant he helped with the two weekly assignments and then the other man’s Pack Bonded dragon, Shamle.

Shamle was another Desert dragon and, according to Tyler, had a sense of humor as dry as the desert. He had chosen to permanently live at the sanctuary, owing to the permanent limp he had which prevented him from hunting for himself and he didn’t want to be seen as a burden to a dragon community.

Despite the limp, he still got around well enough. He mostly just needed supplies delivered to his pen and a bit of help with cleaning. So, while Dustin worked on spreading fresh bedding, Shamle stood off to the side and supervised. Pointing at the far corner, the dragon gave a faint grin, wrinkles forming at the corners of his eyes. “Make sure you dump extra over there.”

“How deep do you want it?” Dustin glanced over. “I’m guessing you either like nesting down or like the extra padding for your leg.”

“Ah, just make me a nice pile.” Shamle slowly limped over, relying heavily on his cane. “A bit of both. It’s supposed to start getting rainy soon and it always bothers my leg. Means I’ll pick one form or the other because it starts getting too uncomfortable to be shifting back and forth. Not as young as I used to be.”

“I’m pretty sure you could whack someone pretty good with that cane if they don’t get your pen just right.” He teased as he worked on opening up another bale of bedding.

“No, I save that for the dragonets when they start getting mouthy with me. Half of them are bull headed and need their skull cracked to get some sense into them. Just because you’re getting your flight feathers in, don’t mean you can go jumping out of trees and flying.” Shamle shook his head and sighed.

“I’m sensing a story there.”

“Tell you what. Come in and have some lunch. You’ve been working on that all morning.” He turned and started shuffling for the small apartment. Dustin suspected that the dragon wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and wasn’t about to turn down free food.

The interior of Shamle’s apartment was immaculately decorated. The floor was covered by rugs with brightly colored geometric designs on them while paintings of different cities adorned the walls in between the hides of different animals. The air felt warm and dry, a sharp contrast to the cool, humid air outside. There was also a lingering, musky smell that Dustin had started to associate with _dragon_. Something animalistic mixed with a touch of sunbaked soil and citrus. It wasn’t a bad smell, just weird and strong.

He took a seat at the table while the dragon worked on making two cups of tea between heating up some sort of stew. “That smells good.”

“Ah, thank you. It’s a bit of a twist on an old family recipe. I can’t get some of the spices, for obvious reasons, but I make do.” After motioning for Dustin to help him with the bowls and cups, he settled down at the table. “Now. The story I promised you. Since I’ve been here at the sanctuary for a number of years, I’ve helped raise my fair share of dragonets. Don’t get me wrong. Non-dragons can do a fantastic job, but you miss out on a lot of little details. But anyway. It never fails. Once one of ‘em gets their wing feathers in? They think they can fly. So, they’re jumping off rocks and what have you. Usually end up with a bloody nose.”

“Sounds about right.” Dustin shoveled a spoonful of the stew into his mouth and made a soft noise of approval. “This is good. I wouldn’t mind the recipe.”

“I’ll see about writing it down for you. So, how are you liking it here, so far?”

“I like it. Keeps me out of trouble.” He gave a slight devil may care grin for a brief moment before it faded. “I’m not sure about the whole idea of Pack Bonding. It sounds pretty serious.”

Shamle made a soft rumble in his chest. “It really isn’t. Dragons are highly social and while we don’t live is communities larger than 30 or 40, we’re very close to one another and share a lot of things. Food, for example, is communal. The hunter gets the first pick and the rest is added to the communal dinner. Of course, if the hunter has a family, that’s different. But Pack Bonding is just a way for us to say we’re close to someone. Essentially? You meet someone, you hit it off fantastically, and suddenly five hours have gone by. This random person ends up becoming someone you call when things get rough and you need help. Does that help explain?”

“It does. It’s just…” Dustin frowned and then sighed at Shamle’s expectant look. “A couple of the workers say that they Pack Bonded to a dragon and ended up in a relationship. I’m not sure about that because, okay, say that happens. What if I want to keep working here and they want to move somewhere else?”

The dragon quietly laughed and smiled. “Some friendships develop into more, others don’t. But my advice would be to not worry about it. You’re assuming that you’ll even Pack Bond with someone. Some dragons will Pack Bond with anything with a pulse, others are much more selective. I would focus on learning and your own healing.”

“Huh?” He glanced down at his hands when Shamle nodded at him. His left hand had been injured a lot more severely and thanks to this fact, his fingers would occasionally twitch…Just like they were doing now. Dustin sighed. “I think they’re as healed as they’re going to be.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, focus on the here and now instead of maybes and what ifs. You have a lot to learn if you want to work here.”

Dustin tried to keep the dragon’s words in mind over the next week, but he couldn’t help but think about things. He figured that it had to do with being around a race who worked a fair bit differently than what he was used to and still learning their various nuances. Still, he found himself enjoying the work and didn’t think he’d leave anytime soon.

That didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy his weekends. Work kept him busy and as Clayton had said, involved a lot of manual labor. While Dustin was one to keep himself in shape, he wasn’t used to the sheer degree of work he was having to do. This meant that being called into work on the weekend wasn’t something he was keen on doing. At least, until he was told it was a bit of an emergency and to head to the clinic.

An emergency was a bit different and Dustin grabbed a bagel as he tossed on his jacket. However, he paused and glanced towards the ICU pens at a fairly angry sounding bellow. Kaitlyn had made mention of them potentially getting new dragons, and he supposed that might be one of them. Frowning, he headed to the clinic and immediately winced at the Godawful shrieking coming from one of the exam rooms.

“What the hell?” He asked as Kaitlyn breezed past him towards the exam room.

“Two new dragons were picked up by Loki’s scouts. The first is an adult male. You probably heard him while you were coming in. He was advertised as a former gladiatorial dragon and combined with him being a big fucker? Have to get him sedated to do an exam. I don’t like the idea, but he could kill a lot of people. The scouts also found a dragonet.” She nodded at the exam room where the shrieking had finally calmed somewhat to something closer to a stuttered cough. “Need to figure out how old incase we need to bottle feed.”

“Do you want me to come in with you?”

“Yep.” Opening the door, Kaitlyn stepped inside. Much like Tauri, the dragonet was covered in dark grey down with lighter grey mottles that almost seemed to mimic the pattern of lichen. However, this one had no feathers. After a moment the dragonet looked towards them with light brown eyes. Overall, the critter was about the same size as a medium sized dog. “Okay, so, not baby-baby, but still young.”

Slowly, she crouched down and talked softly, as she started checking the dragonet over the best she could; the youngster immediately tried to hide in the coat of the woman holding them. “Okay. Has teeth, so that’s good. Looks like…She’s about three or four. Still has most of her milk teeth, but she’s getting a few of her juvvie teeth in.”

“Is she healthy?” Dustin slowly crouched down and made a soft ‘hey’ when the dragonet looked over at him.

“Seems to be. She’s not underweight or dehydrated, which is a damned rarity.” Suddenly, Kaitlyn made a face and tapped her communicator. “This had better be good.”

Tyler opened his mouth to speak and then visibly winced when something bellowed behind him. “So, we were about the sedate the big guy for you when Ifaa said that in between his ‘going to kill everyone’ calls, he’s calling for a kid. Did you happen to get a dragonet up at the clinic?”

Before Kaitlyn could respond, the dragon in the background bellowed again and prompted the dragonet to start shrieking again. Everyone in the room collectively winced in pain until the woman holding her managed to calm her down again. Tyler drily laughed. “I guess that answers that. Hey Ifaa! There is a dragonet at the clinic. Do you want them to bring it down?”

“She’s in good health, so, if the two _are_ a family unit…Which seems likely, as unusual as it is, then she can go with him. Maybe it’ll calm him down.” Kaitlyn sighed at the dragonet who had shifted to quietly whimpering.

“Ifaa says to bring her down here.”

“Gotcha. We’ll be there in a few.” After ending the call, Kaitlyn looked to Dustin. “You’re carrying her.”

“…Alrighty.” While not entirely sure about the idea, he carefully picked up the dragonet who all but clung to him. “How are we going to put her in there?”

“As insane as it sounds, we just walk in with her.” She replied as she opened the door for him.

“You’re fucking joking!”

“Nope! Dragons are dedicated parents, above all else. He might be ready to fight the world, but he’s not going to do anything to put her in harm. We’ll know pretty quickly if that’s his kid or not when he hears her yelling. It’s not uncommon to get hens with dragonets, but I’ve never seen a drake get sold with one. Although, with how old she is, they probably thought she was old enough to be split up from her parents.” Kaitlyn frowned, heavily. “Which makes me wonder what happened to her mom.”

As they approached the pen, the dragon inside started bellowing again, which meant Dustin had to tilt his head away from the dragonet when she began shrieking again. Abruptly, the elder dragon went silent and shifted to a much different call. This time, something low and undulating that he could barely hear. Next to him, Kaitlyn sighed. “She’s his kid for sure. That’s a call to help dragonets find their parents.”

Dustin couldn’t help but grimace in uncertainty when Kaitlyn opened the access door to the pen. Sure, he knew dragons were large, but the dragons he’d been around so far hadn’t prepared him for _this one_. The drake looked like he stood at eight foot at the shoulder and was very solidly build all the way around. His feathers were thicker than the other dragons and were a dark brown, overlaid by dark green striping that shifted into a vivid green when it reached his head where it culminated in a raised crest that flicked down slightly before raising again.

And the fucking dragon was staring right at him with intense, green eyes.

He tensed, feeling like the dragon in front of him would attack at any moment and the lack of noise from the drake didn’t help. Even the dragonet had gone quiet. Everything had gone quiet. Finally, Dustin started taking note of the pen. The fresh blood on the dirt, how the drake wasn’t putting weight on his front right, and how the wing on the same side was being held lower than the other wing.

Dustin was snapped out of his observations when the dragonet squawked and squirmed. His breath hitched when the drake took a step forward, but made a soft, fussy noise that only made the dragonet squirm more. Behind him, Kaitlyn spoke softly. “He’s waiting for you to put her down.”

“…Oh.” Slowly, he crouched down and kept his eyes on the drake as he set the dragonet on her feet. Immediately, the dragonet shot off to the elder dragon and began complaining loudly when she was about knocked over by a rough tongue lick. Finally, the drake turned and began slowly making his way to the shelter with the dragonet in tow.

“So…What now?” He glanced to Kaitlyn who sighed.

“We wait for him to get settled and sedate him.” She replied, softly. “The fact that she’s his kid makes him that much more dangerous because there’s a good chance that he’ll attempt to kill anyone who gets close to her. If he had a mate and lost her, then he’ll be even more aggressive. I don’t like the idea of sedating him like that but…”

“Staff safety.” Dustin finished for her.

“Exactly.”

Once they’d gotten the all clear, Kaitlyn led him to the shelter where the drake slept. There, the dragonet had nested down between the base of his neck and his leg. “Well, he’ll be out for a while…I hope.”

“So, I’m guessing the priority is his leg?” Dustin asked as he peered at the dragon’s back feet; the inner toe claw was closer to being a scythe, than anything, and frankly reminded him of what a dinosaur might have.

“Ugh. Shoulder, actually.” She pointed at the shoulder after Ifaa moved the wing back. The feathers under the wing were matted with blood and there seemed to be a deep claw mark of some type. “Probably from his last fight and they decided it’d take him too long to heal, which means they were probably fighting him as often as they could.”

“Money maker.” Ifaa mused as she adjusted her hold on the wing so she could brush some feathers back to show old scars. “Fought him hard. Not old, though. Still young.”

“Sorry I’m late.” Rusty, the other doctor, apologized as he joined them. “Kaitlyn, since you’re working on his shoulder, do you want me to do his physical? Just so we can get out faster?”

“Please. It’s going to take me a bit to get these feathers trimmed so I can get a better idea of things. While you’re at it, check to see if you can find his gladiator brand so we can guestimate his age. Have Dustin help you.”

“Will do.” He replied, warmly, and gestured Dustin over. “Don’t think I’ll need any help, but it’s always good to have an extra set of hands.”

Curiously, Dustin walked over to Rusty and crouched down next to the vet. “So, where do you think he’s from?”

“It’s hard to say. His coloring makes me think somewhere with a lot of greenery. Not a Jungle type, though. Those tend to be very, very vivid. Blues, reds, yellows…Smaller too. His size makes me think something northern.” He made a quiet ‘hrm’ as he checked the drake’s gums. “Gums look good, so he hasn’t lost too much blood.”

“Shit, you’re not thinking he’s a Northern Coastal, are you?” Kaitlyn popped her head up to look towards Rusty.

“He might be. Loki would know for sure. The toe claw is more indicative of Western Plains, though. So, he’s potentially a cross? I know Western Plains will have trade caravans, so it’s possible someone decided to stay with a Northern Coastal group. Eye mucosa looks good.”

“What’s the big deal about him being a Northern Coastal?” Owing to his ignorance about dragon subtypes, Dustin couldn’t see the issue, but Kaitlyn had made it sound like it was An Issue.

“Northern Coastal dragons, as their name suggests, come from a coastal area that has dense temperate rain forests. It’s actually not too dissimilar to what we have here. The issue is that they’re very…Aggressive. Where other subtypes are willing to talk out their differences, Northern Coastals will essentially throw down.” Rusty laughed, quietly. “They’re less refined than say Desert Dragons. If that’s what he is, then it’d make sense on why he was a gladiatorial dragon.”

Considering the whole place had reminded him of the Pacific Northwest, Dustin could certainly see where the drake in front of him would blend right in. “But you make it sound like a bad thing.”

“No, not a bad thing, they can just be a handful. Very independent dragons and strong willed. Tell them not to do something and they’ll likely do it just to spite you.” Reaching the base of the dragon’s head, Rusty began pawing through the feathers and then sighed. “Well, shit.”

“What?” Kaitlyn looked up from where she had been stitching up one of the injuries.

“At least 25.”

“So, either he was caught as a kid, or he’s easily in his thirties.” Kaitlyn frowned and went back to her work.

“How do you know that?” Dustin moved to crouch down next to Rusty who pointed out the brand.

“The overall brand is the original owner brand. Pretty much any dragon sold into slavery will have one. This mark here shows he was put into gladiatorial work, and this one here shows what year he was caught.” Rusty smoothed down the feathers and sighed as he continued his exam. “Hard to say how well he’ll trust, knowing that.”

Kaitlyn, meanwhile, finally stood up. “Priority is making sure he heals. Anything else to add, Rusty?”

“Lots and lots of food. He’s underweight. Otherwise, yes, make sure his shoulder heals.” He glanced at the dragonet who watched them curiously. “And toys for the little one. I suggest we reserve one of the larger living areas for him, as well, since I doubt he’ll be keen on joining a community.”

“Agreed. Okay, well. I’m done here. Let’s go before he wakes up.” She sighed as she took off her gloves and nodded at Ifaa to release the wing.

Later that evening, Dustin sat by the pen access door and watched the dragonet chase after a ball. The drake, meanwhile, remained in the shelter. He’d eaten, but still seemed to be a bit drugged from the earlier sedative. Tomorrow would be the first day of the week and he couldn’t help but wonder who’d be assigned to the pen.


	4. Rain

The next morning, Dustin sleepily nibbled on some type of fruit filled pastry while he sipped on his coffee; both tasted old. With it being the first day of the week, that meant an early meeting between all of the caretakers, clinic staff, and Loki. It pretty much just made sure everyone was on the same page on who was caring for what dragon, changes in care, requests that different dragons had made, and so forth. Naturally, the big topic of the morning was the new drake.

A hologram of Loki floated in the middle of the table while he waited for everyone to get settled. Every now and then, he’d glance at someone ‘off camera’ and speak, but to the disappointment of everyone, had wisely muted himself. Dustin imagined that the man was talking to Clayton, but couldn’t be entirely sure.

Finally, Loki unmuted himself. “Since I believe everyone is here, I’ll begin. For the time being, the drake is Regulus with his dragonet being Leonis. Rusty’s initial thoughts are correct: he’s a Northern Coastal dragon. This means you can expect him to be very territorial. Whoever gets assigned to him for the week will have no other dragons assigned to them. This means any Pack Bonded or dragon caretakers are automatically off his schedule. Between Regulus being territorial and his child, the scent of another dragon could very well trigger aggression.”

“It’s worth noting that he hasn’t been very aggressive except for when he was separated from Leonis.” Kaitlyn commented. “Once he had her back, he immediately calmed down and walked away.”

“Aggressive, but with cause.” Ifaa added before sipping of her tea. “Will rather bluff than attack. Uses size to intimidate.”

Loki nodded. “Ifaa’s correct. This means I only want experienced caretakers who can read body language with him.”

“Could I shadow one of them?” Dustin asked, suspecting he already knew the answer.

“Absolutely not. While I applaud your willingness to learn about dragons, this is one of those moments where it’s too dangerous. Unfortunately, you’d be a potential liability and I’d prefer not having to explain to Clayton that I allowed his friend to get killed.” Loki offered a gentle smile. “Once Regulus gets settled and we have a better idea of his personality, then yes. However, until then, he’s still considered highly dangerous.”

While fully expecting that answer, Dustin couldn’t help but feel annoyed. Still, he politely nodded and hid his annoyance under a cool, indifferent mask. Loki resumed his briefing. “In terms of diet, Regulus will likely eat about anything. However, red meats and fish are probably going to be favorites. Otherwise, supportive care for his injured shoulder. I have one of my scouts looking to see if there was a third dragon that was sold before Regulus and Leonis. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to find anything, but I’m hoping we can locate Leonis’ mother.”

From there, the rest of the meeting shifted to who’d be working with who for the rest of the week. Unsurprisingly, Dustin found himself assigned to four pens instead of three to help cover the gap with the caretakers who’d been assigned to Regulus. While he could understand Loki’s reasoning, he didn’t quite agree with it.

He wasn’t going to learn anything if the safety wheels were always kept on. Sure, he’d only been there for a few weeks, but still. It wouldn’t hurt for him to just stand by the door and watch, now would it? Admittedly, he knew he could potentially get into trouble for it, but at the same time? He was kinda banking on being buddies with Clayton to save his ass.

Quietly, Dustin snorted to himself as he walked out of the clinic to start loading up the transport with bales of bedding. Clayton _had_ to have known that he’d get attached. For as much as he teased Clayton about his work name, Clayton has teased him just as much about his inclination to get attached to anything and everything remotely in trouble. While his teasing had been playful ribbing, Clayton’s actually had merit.

There had been more than a few times that he’d adopted baby animals on missions with the other man. Xena had always protested, and he’d always had to, reluctantly, give them up to some sort of rescue. A sudden twinge in his hand caused him to wince and nearly drop the bale of bedding he was loading up. With a sigh, he rubbed his hand till the sudden ache faded.

So began the somewhat monotonous work of spot cleaning the shelters. Dragons tended to be pretty clean, but the ones who liked to eat in their dragon forms sometimes ate in the shelters…Which meant bits of blood and meat got on the shavings. A few of the dragons had physical disabilities, such as Shamle, and needed the bedding fluffed.

Dustin really didn’t mind. If anything, it let him ask how they were feeling and if they needed anything. Shamle, for example, liked using some topical cream for his leg when the weather turned rainy and he was in his human form. The dragon kept a good supply of the stuff, but would occasionally run out when the weather got overly wet.

The final living area was Gamma’s. According to one of the other keepers, she’d finally adopted her human form, but hadn’t given a name yet. So, Dustin was a bit excited to get to meet her. Sure, he’d seen her several times before, but they hadn’t really gotten to _talk_. Upon reaching the apartment door, he knocked on it and waited. After a few moments, a blonde-haired woman with bright, blue-green, reptilian eyes answered; the eyes alone told him that this was Gamma.

“Tamara was assigned to me. Where is she?” Gamma cut him off before he could speak.

Almost immediately, Dustin picked up on the defensive attitude and even the defensive body language was obvious to him. “We had a drake brought in last night, Regulus. He’s a Northern Coastal and has a daughter. Loki wanted highly experienced, non-Pack Bonded, non-dragon caretakers to work with him. Tamara was one of them, so I got assigned to you for the week. Is there a name you’d prefer to be called? I don’t want to keep calling you ‘Gamma’ if you don’t like it.”

“Alodi.” She replied, after a moment of hesitation. “What do you want?”

“Alodi. Okay. I can remember that. I’m just here with more shavings. We get a report of any requests you folks make. Since you wanted more shavings…Well, here I am.” He paused and then finally sighed; he didn’t miss how she subtly tensed. “Is something wrong?”

“Just…Not used to being this small. The change between forms.”

While he felt that she wasn’t being entirely truthful, he just gave her a bright grin as he stepped away from the door. Hopefully, the space and friendliness would help ease the concern she clearly had. “Yeah, I can see that. Anyway. How deep do you want the bedding? You can supervise if you want or you can just tell me and go back in. Doesn’t matter to me either way.”

Slowly, she stepped out of the apartment and watched him with a slight head tilt. “I can do that?”

“Well, yeah. The whole idea is that this is your home until you’re ready to join one of the communities…If you want to do that. There’s a few dragons who just decided to live here. “

Alodi seemed to consider for a moment before gesturing at the middle of the shelter. “Just make a big pile there. I’ll shuffle things around, later.”

“You got it, Boss. Before I get to work, is there anything else you need?” When she shook her head, he gave her a slight nod. “Alright, well, if you think of something, lemme know. It was nice to finally get to, officially, meet you, Alodi.”

She merely gave him a tight smile before retreating back into her apartment, leaving him to wonder what had happened to her. Considering what he knew so far about what had happened to the various dragons that permanently lived at the sanctuary? Chances were, it was something that would make him want to put a bullet or five between someone’s eyes.

After staring at the closed door for a moment, Dustin set to work with his assigned task once he’d notified the clinic about Alodi’s name. He supposed that he shouldn’t be surprised that she had some sort of trauma in her past. Regulus, after all, was a former gladiatorial slave. Shamle had been forced to do hard labor. In a sense, it baffled him with how advanced the galaxy was, that people still relied on slavery.

Once he finished with her shelter, Dustin headed back to the main buildings, feeling curious on how Regulus and Leonis were doing. Luckily for him, he was able to intercept Kaitlyn. “How’s the big guy and his kiddo doing?”

“Leonis is doing well. She’s very alert, playful, and active. Otherwise, the only ‘concern’ is that she isn’t really able to eat on her own. That’s more of an age thing, however. She doesn’t have the jaw strength, just yet and would rely on her parents to give her smaller pieces or meat that’s tender. Regulus does a fine job at that, but because we’re keeping him lightly sedated, she’s getting a combination of smaller chunks of meat and fish…Just in case he isn’t able to feed her as well as he normally would.” Kaitlyn paused and glanced towards the pen in question at a low rumble, but when nothing else happened, focused back on Dustin. “Regulus, himself, is doing fine. He has a very healthy appetite and I think we’ll actually need to give him smaller, but more frequent meals rather than three large meals. The sedation is just so he doesn’t move around too much and rip his stitches…Which is what he did last night.”

“I’m guessing the upset of not having Leonis there is what did it?”

“Most likely, yes. He’s actually fairly calm, considering his sub-species. I’m not sure if that’s the Western Plains in him, or just because he’s finally in a low stress environment. Considering how long he was a gladiator? He’s probably happy that he’s not having to fight.” Loudly, she snorted. “Tamara said all he did was bark at them when they got too close to him, which is really just a warning noise. Once they started bringing in his food, he calmed down.”

“Sounds like he’s getting settled.” He couldn’t help but quirk a smile towards the pen at a series of rapid-fire chirps followed by another low rumble. It made him wonder what the two were doing.

“The quicker, the better.” Kaitlyn finally gave him a slight nod. “I have some work to do. I’ll see you later.”

“Sure, no problem.”

He knew better than to trust non-dragons. After all, how many times had he changed hands? Been paraded around on the auction stage while he’d been assessed for his worth? Still, he wasn’t stupid. He’d paid enough attention to know that this wasn’t another pit fighting ring, and he had to admit. Actually having space to roam was a nice change. Perhaps it was retirement? He liked the sound of that.

However, he wasn’t a fan of the vague sensation of being drugged…Even if it helped the dull ache in his shoulder. Really, the drugging wasn’t that bad. It just made him feel a bit lazy and sleepy, but despite this, he couldn’t help but feel concerned. He also didn’t like the tug of the stitches in his shoulder, but didn’t dare try to pull them out thanks to how the scent of medicine made his eyes water and his nose itch.

Things could be worse, of course. They could have taken Pup from him, completely…And he’d feared they had for a short while. It had frankly surprised him that she’d gotten returned. He wasn’t sure why they had taken her in the first place, although given that this was supposedly a ‘sanctuary’, maybe they’d been checking her health.

The sound of rapid-fire chirps from his daughter caused him to open an eye and lazily push out a low rumble. She’d gotten herself lost in the undergrowth. Unsurprisingly, she bolted back to him and demanded reassurance. He went through the motions of nudging her with his nose to ‘check’ on her. In reality, it was purely for her benefit. He’d already checked around the immediate area and found nothing concerning or harmful. About the only other life in the pen beyond the plants and insects were the occasional bird or rodent.

Distantly, the rumble of thunder caused him to open both eyes and finally lift his head up before sniffing of the air. Rain. It’d been decades since he’d spent any amount of time in an outdoor area, but he innately knew the scent. He couldn’t help but groan because it meant getting up. Not only had he gotten comfortable, he also knew getting up would mean his shoulder bothering him.

It was finally the slow patter of rain that drove him to climb to his feet. Even though Pup’s offended squawk at a particularly large drop of rain hitting her head was hilarious, he started slowly moving towards the shelter, calling her to join him. While his movements were slow and unhurried, she raced ahead of him, then rapidly chirped at him to scold him for taking so long, then ran back to him.

When he finally reached the shelter, a loud clap of thunder caused Pup to shriek out an alarm call and flatten herself against the bedding. He merely sighed and made a short note of a purr as reassurement while he laid down. Leaning over, he gently picked her up in his jaws and deposited her between his front legs, against his chest where he’d already fluffed his feathers. It didn’t take her long to nest down and he sleepily watched as it abruptly began pouring down rain.

In many respects, the place reminded him of home, somewhere he barely remembered save for the butchering of his family. His father had died trying to defend them while his mother died tried to hide them…And his twin sister had died after biting someone’s finger off when they’d grabbed her while trying to drag her away from their dead mother.

She’d always been the feisty one where he’d been the quieter one. A bit ironic, he supposed, considering his prior ‘line of work’. While he still missed her, it’d been better that she’d been killed than deal with the horrors that would have awaited her. Horrors that his daughter would hopefully never see. He’d fought, these past few years, to keep her safe. Protected. Perhaps now she’d be able to live her life free.

Quietly, he yawned, the action trailing off into a low purr to sooth Pup. It wouldn’t take much to cause her to fall asleep; he was headed there, himself. He couldn’t tell if it was from the rain, his earlier meal, or if they had drugged him again, but honestly? A nap sounded like a fantastic idea.


	5. Zero Tolerance

Dustin didn’t really know how long he’d been sitting by the door to the pen, just that sunset had happened long ago. He knew he shouldn’t be here, but he couldn’t help it. Considering Regulus’ injuries, he wanted to make sure Leonis was doing okay…Especially since Regulus tended to shield her with his wings and snort anytime Kaitlyn or Rusty went into the pen to look at her. As far as they could tell, she was doing fine, but it was hard to tell with all her fluff. Since Regulus seemed to be doing quite well, they didn’t want to sedate him unless they absolutely had to.

So, that’s why Dustin was sitting in the pen at fuck’o’clock at night with nightvision binoculars. He wasn’t supposed to be in there, but apparently, no one else had the balls to do it. Besides, Regulus didn’t seem to be aware of him being in there.

The drake in question seemed to be more active at night, if the vocalizations were any indication. In fact, he currently laid on the ground near the feeding area where he carefully nipped off bits of meat to feed to Leonis. Dustin couldn’t help but smile a bit as Regulus held the food just above the dragonet’s head, making her stand up on her back legs and flap her wings for balance. It was honestly adorable and relieved him to see the youngster was getting fed.

After a bit more of this, she wandered off to the shelter while Regulus continued to eat, prompting Dustin to drop the binoculars into his lap so he could rub his face. Well, it seemed that he hadn’t had anything to really worry about. The two had been at the sanctuary for nearly a week now and if either of them were going to start having issues, it would have already started up by now. Regulus, himself, had proven to have a very healthy appetite and seemed to prefer the smaller, but more frequent meals that Kaitlyn had set up for him.

The drake also seemed to have settled in, going so far as to building himself a bit of a nest. He was still a bit limited, thanks to his shoulder, but Kaitlyn had stated that the injury had been fairly deep and would take some time to heal unless Regulus’ healing kicked back in. Regardless, the two were doing well and that was really what mattered. The only downside was that Regulus was starting to show some aggressive tendencies. So far, it’d only been snorting at the different caretakers, but it was enough to worry Kaitlyn.

Raising the binoculars back up, he blinked. He didn’t see the drake and couldn’t tell if the dragon had gone into the shelter or not. Sighing, he slowly leaned to the side, but froze when he heard one of the trees to his left softly creak. Considering it was a relatively windless night, that could only mean one thing. Despite the potential seriousness of the situation, all his seagull-on-crack brain could think of was Jurassic Park and Alan Grant talking about how T-rexes had movement-based vision.

Obviously, dragons weren’t T-rexes and his best bet was to show that he wasn’t a threat, but honestly? How much of a threat could he be to Regulus? Slowly, he straightened back up and looked to his left. Nothing. Turns out, the dragon had been in front of him, hiding behind one of the thicker, unkept trees. Dustin barely managed to not squawk in panic when he suddenly had a dragon snout in his face. He didn’t care about being sniffed. His worry was the tip of a large looking canine that was barely visible under the dragon’s upper lip.

Unfortunately, Regulus didn’t seem interested in going away anytime soon and kept prodding him with his nose while making a soft, raspy snort. Finally, Dustin slowly held up his hands. “I was just worried about your daughter. You haven’t let anyone near her and I wanted to make sure she was getting enough food, especially with you not feeling good.”

Hopefully, he wouldn’t offend Regulus. He really didn’t know how much Basic the dragon understood, but hopefully, his stammered-out words wouldn’t be taken out of context. Finally, he sighed and slowly gestured at himself. “I’m Dustin, one of the caretakers here. Everyone is kinda scared at you and…I guess that I’m missing some of my brain cells because with the shape you were in? Just worried about your daughter because we weren’t able to do a complete exam on her since we were rushing to get her back to you. Sorry about that, by the way. We didn’t know she was your’s.”

He blinked a bit as the drake slowly pulled his head back and cocked his head slightly; a sign of curiosity. So, Dustin did what he did best: he ran his mouth. “We just kinda assume that you two were separate since she wasn’t being kept with you, but we have no plans of splitting you two up. Once your shoulder heals up, we have living areas that you can move into. Basically, similar to this, just with more land and a little apartment you can live in.”

The man, Dustin, jabbered away, endlessly. However, it still gave him useful information and calmed a number of the questions and worries he’d developed since arriving here. The idea of having his own home interested him, it was more than what he’d had for most of his life and it’d give him a quiet place to raise Pup. Finally, two things caused him to move on. First, Pup fussing from the shelter and second, someone outside of the pen door. He softly rumbled and slowly began making his way back to the shelter.

Dustin simply watched Regulus abruptly leave before getting up and slipping out of the pen. When he turned around, a bright flashlight was shined in his face. Wincing, he squinted his eyes and held up his hand to try to block out some of the light.

“What the _fuck_ do you think you’re doing, Dustin?” Kaitlyn demanded angrily. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“I was making sure Leonis was being fed by Regulus.” He couldn’t help the annoyed tone in his voice. “Regulus is pretty chill, by the way.”

She dropped the flashlight so she wasn’t blinding him anymore, but kept glaring a bit. “Please tell me you didn’t walk up to him.”

“I stayed right by the door, thank you very much. He actually came over to say ‘hello’ and was just curious about me. So, I let him sniff me and told him about the sanctuary. He finally got bored of me talking and walked off.” Dustin shrugged. “I think it went well.”

This caused Kaitlyn to go silent for a moment as she thought things over. “He didn’t growl, bark, or hiss at you?”

“Nope. Just this raspy snort.”

“Well, that’s sure as hell better than what any of the other caretakers have gotten.” She finally sighed. “It sounds like he might like you better. No telling why. I don’t really like the idea of you being on his schedule because I absolutely agree with what Loki said, but…If he’s going to react to you that positively, then it’s something worth considering. I’ll have to talk to Loki in the morning about it. Promise me you won’t do that again unless you have someone with you.”

“Absolutely no promises.” He couldn’t help but grin at Kaitlyn’s exasperated noise.

“You’re sitting in on the meeting with me, then.”

Dustin had assumed that she’d been joking, but the next morning he sleepily sat at the table with a cup of coffee while they waited for Loki to answer. “I thought you were going to call him.”

“You’re being a dumbass, so I need back up to convince you not to get yourself killed.” She looked up with Loki finally answered. “So, quick update about Regulus.”

Loki tilted his head slightly to indicate for her to continue but blinked when Clayton suddenly poked his head into the frame. “Dustin’s being a dumbass, broody shit and adopted Regulus?”

Kaitlyn opened her mouth, then snapped it shut and finally rubbed her forehead. “…So, his idiocy is normal?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Clayton suddenly laughed. “Hand him an injured animal and he’ll pretty much immediately adopt it. Seen it a few times.”

Gently, Loki pushed Clayton’s head away. “What did Dustin do?”

“We had some concerns that Regulus wasn’t able to feed Leonis properly because of his shoulder, but he’s protective of her so we also haven’t been able to do an exam. Between that and not wanting to sedate him, we’ve just been having to observe how she’s acting. Dustin snuck into the pen last night to observe them for us.” She sent Dustin a bit of a glare. “However, he reported that Leonis is doing well and Regulus wasn’t hostile towards him like he has the other caretakers. Even going so far as approaching him, sniffing of him, and walking away.”

“Interesting.” Loki mused. “That’s a very favorable response. I’m not entirely against the idea of him replacing one of the caretakers and shadowing the other, but I worry about him if Regulus goes aggressive all of a sudden. Granted, he hasn’t been overly hostile outside the initial day.”

“He got attached.” Clayton commented from off screen. “Whatever you decide, he’s going to still end up in there.”

Dustin couldn’t help but laugh and cup his hands over his face at how badly he was being called out. “Can you call me out any harder, dude?”

“…At some point someone will find you singing the dragonet to sleep?”

He could only groan as Clayton, in fact, called him out further. “I’m just going to shut up…”

Loki simply made a sound of exasperation as he tried to shepherd everyone back to the topic at hand. “If that’s the case, then we might as well put him on Regulus’ care team.”

“And if he does something stupid and gets eaten?” Kaitlyn asked, clearly not wanting to take any blame for Dustin ignoring protocol.

“His own damn fault.” Clayton replied. “I’m not joking when I say he’s broody. Half the time when we’d do missions together, he’d find some stray that let him pet it, and the next thing I’d know, he’d adopted it, gotten it food and all that. Xena doesn’t like animals onboard, so I always had to make him give it to a shelter or something. So, yeah. This is all entirely on par for him.”

“Well, as long as I don’t get in trouble for it.”

Given that Alodi had voiced preference to having Tamara as her caretaker, Dustin took her place the next day and waited outside of the pen for Obek, the caretaker he’d be working with for the foreseeable future. Faintly, he heard Leonis making fussy sounds, and glanced at the other keeper when he finally arrived with the food. “She’s sounding really upset.”

Obek side eyed Dustin for a long moment, as if sizing him up before he finally shook his head. “That’s a hungry noise. She always sounds like that in the morning. I’m surprised Regulus isn’t making grumpy noises, too. He might still be asleep though. Open the door for me?”

“Yeah, sure.” Dustin opened the door to the pen and curiously followed Obek. Regulus had laid down at the opening of the shelter and initially looked like he was still asleep, till he opened his eyes. Perched atop his head was Leonis. In between her fussy chirps, she’d grab one of his crest feathers and tug on it. When she noticed them, however, she let out a sharp bark that turned into a startled squawk when she fell off Regulus’ head as he began getting up. Regulus seemed to regard her for a moment, sniffed her, and evidently deemed her fine before shifting his attention to Dustin and Obek.

“Hey there, big guy.” Dustin greeted, warmly. “Bet you’re interested in getting some chow and going back to bed, huh?”

Regulus simply eyed him for a moment before looking to Obek and snorting at him. This prompted the caretaker to quietly sigh. “Of course, he’d like the newbie…”

“Well, you won’t earn any points acting like that.” Dustin grabbed one of the buckets to open it. Curiously, he peeked inside and was greeted by the sight of whole fish. Turning, he dumped it on the sheet metal that served as the feeding area. “I mean, hell. Even _I_ can tell you have a chip on your shoulder.”

“You’re inexperienced and your inexperience could easily get us both killed. So, not only do I have to keep an eye on Regulus, I also have to keep an eye on _you_ so you don’t…I don’t know, misread his body language and get eaten.” Obek replied, his voice having a tone of borderline irritation. “I don’t know why they reassigned Tamara and replaced her with you.”

Turning around to face Obek, Dustin lightly shrugged. “Maybe because I’m not being a whiney bitch about things? Look, could you at least pretend to _not_ be a dick? Trust me, I’ve heard from just about everyone to avoid working with you because you’re a giant, raging asshole. So, cool thy tiddies so we can finish getting these guys their breakfast.”

Rather than responding, Obek focused on something behind Dustin and suddenly scrambled backwards when Regulus abruptly charged him. Dustin yelped in surprise and jerked to the side as the dragon moved past him while the other caretaker struggled to stay away from snapping jaws. Unsure of what to do, Dustin really did the only thing he could: he threw a fish at the dragon’s head. It bounced off, harmlessly, but was enough to get Regulus’ attention.

Dustin squared his shoulders and glared, just like he was staring down some back-talking newbie in his old merc team. Then, he pointed at the pile of food. “Quit your shit and eat your fucking food.”

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea to gain Regulus’ full attention, especially when the drake stalked over to him and stared down at him. Dustin, despite being scared pretty shitless, kept the glare. “T’fuck are you staring at? I’m not in the mood for any shit. Especially shit that’ll fuck up your shoulder. So, go eat your Goddamned food and don’t make me repeat myself.”

Rather than attacking, Regulus tilted his head and almost seemed…Amused. Finally, he rumbled out a low noise that almost passed for a laugh before turning to limp to the pile of food. Dustin dropped his arm. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You better take it easy after breakfast, too. ‘Cause I bet you’ll be feeling that dumbass stunt you just pulled, later.”

Grabbing the buckets, he looked to Obek, who was wide eyed, and mouthed ‘go’. The caretaker glanced at the dragon behind Dustin for a brief second and quickly nodded before getting up to run-but-not-run power walk out of the pen. Once the other man had left, Dustin quietly sighed and tried to calm his still pounding heart. Admittedly, it’d been a pretty fucking stupid move, but he had needed to do something, else Regulus would have killed Obek. After putting the empty buckets in the trailer, he quietly directed it out of the pen and shut the door behind him. Already, he could tell that he was going to land himself in another meeting.

“You could have gotten yourself killed!” Kaitlyn snapped while Loki rubbed his forehead on the holocall.

“But I didn’t. I’m pretty damn sure I saved Obek’s life because Regulus looked pretty hellbent on attacking him.” Dustin wasn’t surprised that Obek wasn’t with them, the man had looked pretty shaken up over the deal. He really couldn’t blame him.

“Just…Stop. Both of you.” Loki finally interrupted, having gotten tired of the bickering. “Just to make sure I have this correct. You and Obek were feeding Regulus when you two started arguing?”

“Right. He was kinda irritated that I replaced Tamara and that Regulus didn’t make a warning snort at me. I pointed out that he wasn’t going to get any points with Regulus for acting like that. So, he got kinda bitchy about me being inexperienced and I told him to calm his tits…After pointing out that he was being a dick and that everyone’s told me that he’s a giant, raging, asshole.”

Somewhere from behind Loki, was the sound of Clayton cackling. Loki merely sighed, loudly. “And then Regulus charged at Obek?”

“Yup. I had my back to Regulus, so, I don’t know what kinda body language he was doing, but he charged Obek and was snapping his jaws like he wanted a piece of ‘em. So…I threw a fish at his head.” Dustin couldn’t help but laugh slightly at the sound from behind Loki that suspiciously sounded like a wheeze. “That got his attention off Obek and…So…I told him to go eat his fucking food.”

“And he did just that?”

Dustin nodded. “To be honest? I thought that he was going to lunge at me, but…I used to run a mercenary outfit after I left Arkane. Clayton can probably tell you about it if you ask, but anyway. I’d occasionally get these newbies in who thought they were hot shit. Pretty much had to be a hardass towards them and show that I wasn’t going to take their shit. That’s…Kinda what I did. I figured that it’d give Obek a chance to get away.”

Loki sighed and rubbed his face with both hands, then very quietly muttered, ‘fuck my life’. Finally, he dropped his hands to the table. “Pull Obek off the pen. Regulus very clearly doesn’t like him and at this point, it’ll be dangerous to allow him to continue working as his caretaker.”

“Agreed. Who do you want to replace him? Tamara is permanently with Alodi, due to Adoli’s request. I think she Pack Bonded to Tamara.” Kaitlyn noted as she brought up the schedule.

“No one. Just have Dustin working the pen.” Loki held up his hands at the indignant look Kaitlyn gave him. “It’s far from ideal, I know, and _you_ know I wouldn’t normally do this. However, Regulus clearly prefers him. This is twice in less than twenty-four hours that the dragon has been in a position where he could harm Dustin and hasn’t. Some dragons prefer a certain personality and considering he _is_ a Northern Coastal, he very well could respect that Dustin had the balls to stand up to him.”

“Just to clarify, I was scared shitless.”

“That very well might be, but you still stood up to him. Northern Coastals are known to settle differences through sparring. They respect strength and will.” Loki sighed again. “Trust me, Kaitlyn, I don’t like it any more than you do, but Dustin is _literally_ the only caretaker Regulus hasn’t shown aggressive tendencies towards. Yes, as benign as it is, the snorting is an aggressive warning sound.”

Kaitlyn cupped her hands over her face with a quiet groan. “I need a drink…Okay. Fine. I’ll assign him to Regulus’ pen. Just don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“Stupidity is his middle name.” Clayton suddenly chimed in.

“…I thought that was ‘dumbass’?” Dustin quipped.

“Stupid Dumbass.”

Kaitlyn and Loki simply shared a collective sigh.


	6. Doctor Visits and Realizations

The morning after the Regulus incident, Dustin hauled the trailer of food into the pen, feeling mildly worried. At lunch and dinner yesterday, the drake hadn’t really gotten up to eat. Kaitlyn had been concerned at this news, but noted that Regulus’ shoulder might be a bit sore thanks to his antics. However, if he ignored his breakfast, she wanted to look at his shoulder to make sure there was no infection and he hadn’t busted his stitches.

Leonis fussed for her food, as he’d heard yesterday, but Dustin sighed when he saw Regulus half curled up in the shelter…Still in the same spot as last night. Frowning, he quickly dumped the food for the dragonet before tapping his communicator to contact Kaitlyn. Before she could respond, he spoke. “Regulus is still in the same spot as yesterday. I think you need to take a look at his shoulder.”

Kaitlyn sighed. “I was worried about that. Okay. I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes. I need to get some things together.”

Dustin felt completely unsurprised when the doctor simply ended the call. She tended to do that a lot and while he’d initially thought it was a bit rude, later found out that she was usually just busy. Still, just as she said, fifteen minutes later and she was standing next to him.

“He doesn’t look like he feels very good. Hopefully, it’s just a case of a few ripped stitches.”

“What’s the plan?” He looked over at her.

“Sedate him and check his shoulder. What I do largely depends on how his shoulder looks. It could range from just removing a few ripped stitches to opening his shoulder back up and flushing it because it’s infected.” She sighed and looked towards Regulus who was quietly watching them. “He listens to you. Can you tell him what I’m doing? I’d prefer to just give him a shot instead of tranqing him from a distance.”

“Yeah, I can try. Just stay here and I’ll wave you over if he agrees.” Slowly, he made his way over to the shelter and crouched down a few feet away from Regulus who seemed to watch him with a bit of wariness. “Hey, big guy. You’re not feeling too hot from what you did yesterday, huh? I don’t blame you, that dude was being a pretty big dick. Kaitlyn over there needs to look at your shoulder. She’s worried you might have some infection in there. So, she needs to sedate you for a bit so you don’t have to feel her working on it.”

Up until he mentioned sedation, Regulus seemed okay with the idea. However, he immediately faintly growled at the word ‘sedate’. Slowly, Dustin eased over and sat down in the bedding. “Yeah, I know. I’m not a big fan of that either. Always feel weird when I come out of it. She’s just worried that she’ll have to do a lot of work. If it helps, I’ll hang out until you wake up and make sure your kiddo doesn’t get into any trouble. She looks like she’s the age where she can be a handful. Plus, I’ll tell you what Kaitlyn found.”

The mention of Leonis being a handful yielded a sound that suspiciously sounded like a laugh. However, Regulus sighed, heavily, and finally nodded. Looking to Kaitlyn, Dustin waved her over. “He’s okay with the idea.”

Kaitlyn didn’t seem so sure, but walked over and warily manipulated Regulus’ front leg so she could prep him for the injection. “You’ll knock out pretty quickly. Depending on how much work I have to do, I might keep you mildly sedated to help with the pain.”

Regulus simply sighed and flopped his head to the side, as if to say ‘just get it over with’. Dustin lightly patted his foreleg. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”

It didn’t take long for Regulus to sleepily blink then close his eyes. Looking to Kaitlyn, Dustin stood up. “Want me to hold his wing back for you?”

“He really does like you.” Kaitlyn mused, quietly, before she nodded. “Yes, please.”

After getting himself comfortable on the base of Regulus’ neck, Dustin gently pulled back the wing and grimaced at the bald spot around the injury. From his untrained knowledge, a few of the stitches looked like they’d busted. “It looks like he lost his feathers.”

“That likely means he has some sort of infection. For whatever reason, dragons tend to molt their feathers when around an infected injury. It's helpful, in a way, because you can grade the severity of the infection by how bad the molting is. It also looks like he tore some stitches out. He might have a pus pocket.” Frowning, Kaitlyn carefully snipped away the stitches and felt around on the injury. Then, she snorted when pus began oozing out of two of the stitching holes. “There it is. Can you smell anything?”

“No. It just looks kinda gross.”

“Good. I just wanted to make sure. That rules out any dead tissue, which would mean going in and cleaning. As it stands now, I can just get as much pus out as I can and flush it.” Reaching over, she grabbed a swab and quickly took a small sample of the pus before continuing her work. “Probably toss him on some type of antibiotic. Overall, it’s not exactly good, but could absolutely be worse.”

“Still going to sedate him a bit?” Dustin glanced over at Leonis when she wandered into the shelter.

“Yes. Just to keep him from moving around too much. This was likely already developing and his antics yesterday just made it worse.” Satisfied with getting the pus out, Kaitlyn changed her gloves and worked on flushing the pocket. “If you can, I want you to check on his shoulder when you bring him food, just so I have an idea of how his healing is progressing.”

“Sure. I already told him that I’d let him know what you found.”

“Good. Okay. I’m done. I need to run this sample back to the clinic so we can get a better idea of what we’re dealing with. Are you staying here or coming with?” She asked as she picked up the small amount of trash she made.

“Staying. I told him I’d hang out till he woke up to keep an eye on Leonis.” Dustin glanced at the dragonet. “I’m pretty sure she’s his entire world.”

“She probably is. Let me know if you need me or Rusty for whatever reason.” After giving him a slight nod, she left.

This left Dustin with nothing much to do until Regulus woke up. So, he grabbed the container of food and figured he could offer the drake some when he finally woke up. Otherwise, he sat down and browsed the Archives on his communicator. At some point, Leonis woke up from her nap and crept over to him, curiously. “Hey there. Have a good nap?”

Quite suddenly, he found himself with the dragonet in his lap, snuggling against him. Dustin couldn’t help but laugh and gently hug her. He still struggled with the idea that this wasn’t an animal. This was a sentient being who was currently in an animal form…Even if she currently was acting like an animal in how she mouthed his wrist. After a moment, he pulled a smaller fish out of the container and used his pocket knife to slice a small bit of it off. She immediately gobbled it down as soon as he offered it. In fact, he was still feeding her bits of the fish when Regulus made a low noise as he started waking up.

After cleaning his hands on his pants and carefully setting Leonis to the side, Dustin got up and moved over to Regulus. “Hey, take it easy. Kaitlyn had to do some work on your shoulder.”

Blearily, Regulus focused on him before making a soft sound that caused Leonis to scramble over to him. After checking her over, he focused back on Dustin, expectantly. Dustin grabbed the food bucket and offered the drake one of the fish. “Here. Eat while I tell you what happened.”

Truthfully, he expected Regulus to refuse but found himself heavily surprised when the drake simply allowed himself to be hand fed. “Okay. So. You did end up ripping a few of your stitches and Kaitlyn found a pus pocket, but she says it was probably already developing and what you did yesterday just made it worse. She cleaned it all out and she’s talking about putting you on some antibiotics. Plus, she plans on keeping you a bit sedated. I’ve already decided that I’ll be camping out here until she decides you don’t need to be sedated. I don’t really think you’ll be wanting to move around a lot…Which means someone’s going to need to feed Kiddo.”

It felt strange to have someone concerned about him, at least, in this fashion. The others had only cared on if he’d win them money. This one sought to ensure his comfort and health. Slowly, he turned his head to focus on Pup. She’d fallen asleep in the bedding and made soft, content grunts in her sleep; that meant she’d been fed. A soft touch to the side of his snout brought his attention back to Dustin who offered him another fish.

“Come on. You’ve barely eaten since yesterday morning.”

Sighing, he took the fish and slowly ate it. He still felt groggy and everything felt somewhat deadened. Yet, unlike before, he didn’t feel concern. He knew that they were safe here, that his injuries would be looked after, and his daughter taken care of. And this human…He liked him. The others had reacted fearfully to his bluffs, but this one? Well, he’d been scared but had stood up to him. That meant he’d be willing to protect Pup should something happen. In theory, anyway.

Once more, he felt his snout touched. Opening his eyes, he blinked a few times at how close Dustin’s face was to his. The human suddenly gave a bright smile. “I’ll be back in about an hour, okay? I gotta go grab some food and stuff. You did pretty good with eating, so, just take it easy.”

He managed a soft rumble and closed his eyes again to nap. After what seemed like only a few minutes, he opened his eyes to the sight of Dustin spreading out a few blankets and tossing down a pillow. Once more, the human grinned. “Like I told you. I’m going to camp out here until you start feeling better. Hey, Kiddo!”

Bemused, he watched Dustin scoop up Pup who made a delighted coo and started trying to bat at the man’s head. This quickly turned into the two chasing around the ball that someone had brought his daughter. In a way, it made him feel…Happy, to see her playing. She’d had little chance to be a child, so far. She needed to be able to run, play, and just have fun. Slowly, he shifted himself into a slightly upright position so that he could watch them.

Eventually, Dustin trekked back into the shelter carrying a tired Pup. “Where do you want her?”

It took a bit of effort on his part to tap his chest with his chin, but to make the point clearer, he fluffed the feathers on his chest, then looked to the human expectantly. He heard a quiet ‘gotcha’ before Dustin walked over and carefully put Pup between his front legs. She immediately snugged down and made a sleepy noise.

Dustin crouched down in front of him with a faint look of concern. “Need anything? More food, water, bedding?”

He slowly shook his head and faked a yawn to indicate that he still felt tired. The human nodded, wordlessly, and stood up to go back to where he’d put the blankets down. Laying his head back down, he quietly sighed as he suddenly felt all the stress and tension from his prior life just vanish. Perhaps it was whatever they’d sedated him with, or maybe it was just how they insisted on helping him. Whatever the case might be, it had finally sunk in that he was safe. The fighting was over. He could focus on raising Pup and figuring out on what to do with his newfound freedom.

Finally, he made a soft, content rumble and closed his eyes to sleep.


	7. Bonds

It wasn’t too terribly hard for him to figure out when he was being given the sedative and antibiotic. Dustin always insisted on giving him a certain bit of meat, first, when he brought his food. He knew the pills, he assumed them to be pills, had been hidden in the meat. Yet, the sedative was slow acting enough that it really didn’t kick in until after he finished eating. Either way, he wasn’t too terribly inclined to move around beyond making himself comfortable.

Unfortunately, this didn’t work too well with Pup demanding his attention. She wanted him to play, not realizing that he honestly didn’t feel good. Normally, he would have pushed past his discomfort to play a short game of ‘kick the ball around’, but the medications they were giving him just made him feel exhausted. Besides, it’d been so long since he’d gotten to rest.

In a way, it amused him at how he’d begun allowing Dustin to take care of Pup when he would have otherwise killed someone for getting near her. He couldn’t really put a claw on why the man seemed to be so easy to trust. Perhaps it was the little nuances of Dustin being _happy_ at seeing Pup. How he didn’t hesitate to scoop her up and be delighted at the happy coos she made.

Half the time, he felt worried that he’d wake up and be back at the pits…Or worse, in one of the cells waiting to go up for auction. Yet, he always woke to the sound of nature or Dustin checking on him. It wasn’t a bad thing to wake up to, honestly.

Slowly, he shifted himself upright and couldn’t help but make a soft wince at the sharp ache in his shoulder. Out of nowhere, Dustin was suddenly beside him with a concerned expression. “Is your shoulder bothering you?”

Surprisingly intuitive, but then again, he supposed that it was his only major injury. Sighing, he nodded and felt completely unsurprised when the human immediately went to check on his shoulder. He could feel the gentle probing around the injury and heard soft muttering. Finally, Dustin popped back up. “It still feels a bit warm, but I couldn’t get any pus to come out. So, I think the antibiotics Kaitlyn gave you are helping. If you want, I can ask her about something for the pain.”

Quietly, he rumbled, unsure of the idea. His mind already felt foggy from the sedative and he didn’t know if the pain medication would make it worse. A gentle touch to his nose caused him to open his eyes again and blink at Dustin whose eyebrows were furrowed with concern. “I wish you could tell me what you’re thinking. ‘Cause I know you’re uncertain about something…But between the shape you’re in and your injury, Kaitlyn doesn’t want you shifting. Plus, I guess you’re not really comfortable with us yet.”

He huffed out a breath. The human’s statement wasn’t entirely true. After all, if he _was_ uncomfortable with them, he wouldn’t have allowed the man to be so close to his daughter. Slowly, he stretched his neck out and very carefully bumped Dustin in the chest with his nose, then lightly tilted his head. Already, he could tell communication would be a bit of an issue and was trying to convey that he was comfortable with the man. He sure as hell didn’t expect Dustin to start scratching him under the jaw.

For a moment, he froze, unsure of what to think. Few had ever really touched him with any sort of affection in mind. Really, the only one that came to mind was Pup’s mother and she’d been out of the picture for the past two years. Slowly, he felt his head sink down, despite the sharp ache in his shoulder from being tensed. Next to him, Dustin sank down with his head and made soft noises of reassurement.

“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. Pretty sure you could knock me into the wall without even trying. Give me a sign, pull away, whatever. I’ll stop.”

But did he really want it to stop? He felt torn between the instinct to pull away and the desire for it to continue. In the end, he just laid there like a dumb lump, even as he felt a hand on top of his head and fingers gently scratching at the base of his crest. Finally, he heaved a sigh and just let himself relax. He was just so tired of always feeling stressed; he couldn’t do it anymore.

It initially worried Dustin to see Regulus suddenly go wide eyed and he’d thought he crossed some sort of line up until the drake sagged down to the ground. At that point, he didn’t know if he should continue or stop, but when nothing was done to stop him, he ultimately continued. “Shh. It’s okay. You’re safe. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

Because that’s what he thought Regulus was doing with how he tensed up and had a subtle tremor to his muscles. Dustin hated it. He hated to see someone reacting this way to something that was meant to be reassuring and he quietly stewed, even as the dragon next to him fell asleep.

A light nudge to his leg woke him up and he blearily blinked before looking up at Kaitlyn. Dimly, he realized that he must have forgotten to check in and she’d gotten worried about him. Slowly, he sat up and sighed at the expectant glare she had. “Sorry. Regulus was upset and I was trying to reassure him. Guess I fell asleep.”

“Upset how?” She asked softly as she crouched down next to him.

“I don’t know. He was acting like he was in a bit of pain with his shoulder and so I mentioned talking to you about some type of pain medicine but he seemed uncertain. I told him as much and he sort of nudged my chest with his nose. Started kinda scratching under his jaw and he just tensed up and started shaking a bit. I don’t know if I did something wrong, but he just sagged down and…Well.” He vaguely gestured.

“I suspect that he’s not used to being touched. It’s a fairly common problem. Still, the fact that he let you says volumes. Beside it hurting, how’s his shoulder doing?” Kaitlyn briefly glanced at Leonis when she poked her head out from under Regulus’ chest feathers.

“Still warm, but it looked like the infection is going down.”

“Good. Well, I’m not interested in giving him oral pain meds because of his sedative since it’ll just make him even more drowsy. Would you be alright in putting some pain cream around his injury? Outside of taking longer to kick in since it has to absorb, it works just as well for pain as the oral.” She sighed and the slight glare she had fell away. “I know you’re concerned about him, Dustin, but be careful. He’s dangerous.”

“Y’know. You folks keep saying that, but I’ve been staying in here since you started sedating him two days ago.” He couldn’t help but feel a sense of delight at her surprised expression. “If he was going to do something, he would have already done it. Hell, he lets me pick up and play with Leonis. We _both_ know that she means everything to him.”

Kaitlyn sighed loudly and opened her mouth to speak, but snapped it shut when Regulus opened his eyes slightly before slowly flopping his head against Dustin. “Well, he certainly doesn’t mind your company.”

Dustin grinned brightly and smoothed one of the drake’s crest feathers. “Hey there, Big Guy. Talked to Kaitlyn about your shoulder and she suggested some sort of pain cream to put around it. How’s that sound?”

His grin only got brighter when his question was met with a low rumble and a slight nod. Looking back to Kaitlyn, he nodded. “I’m fine with it. Just show me how to put it on and how often I should do it. That’s part of the reason I’m camping out here. Plus, Leonis can be a handful and likes climbing on him. I figure the last thing he needs is for her to be jumping on his shoulder.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that.” Overall, she just had a bit of a defeated expression on her face. “By the way, we’re having a meeting with Loki about Regulus after lunch. He’s wanting frequent updates since his case is so unusual.”

“Is it the whole…Drake with a dragonet thing?”

“Yes, it is.” Then, she sighed. “It’s just very unusual to find dragonets in as good of health as Leonis is. So, there’s a lot of focus on keeping her that way.”

“I don’t think we’ll have any problems. She’s pretty active and isn’t losing any weight. Plus, she’s the other reason I’m camping out here. With Regulus being sedated, he’s not really able to feed her very well. So, I’ve taken that over for him.” Dustin blinked a few a few times when the drake in question lightly pushed his head against him. “Oh. I stopped scratching around his crest feathers.”

“I’ll bring you his pain cream here in a few…Oh and Dustin?” Kaitlyn simply gave a faint smile. “Just so we’re clear: the meeting is scheduled for after lunch. Try not to be late.”

He sighed and waved her off before shifting his attention back to Regulus who looked like he was about to doze off again. Still, he did pay attention to what she had to say and arrived at the clinic’s meeting room a solid ten minutes early. Unsurprisingly, Kaitlyn was already there. “They’re both fed and napping. So, I think I have a few hours.”

“Good, but I don’t think the meeting will take that long.” Loki noted from the doorway, before Kaitlyn could reply. “I talked Clayton into taking a vacation. There’s nothing too terribly important going on, and what _is_ going on, can be handled by the Council of Queens.”

“Lemme guess. He’s still a workaholic?” He cracked a bit of a grin at Loki. “Glad he finally found someone to drag him away from everything. Where is he, anyway?”

“You’d guess correctly. He’s at the lodge working on dinner…Some type of marinated fish.” Loki settled down into one of the chairs. “So, how are Regulus and Leonis doing? Kaitlyn mentioned Regulus’ shoulder was developing a mild infection and she decided to keep him mildly sedated.”

“Yeah. She had to flush it out and decided to keep him kinda sedated so he doesn’t move around too much. He’s on some antibiotics, too. The biggest issue with him right now is his shoulder is bothering him, which…” Dustin looked over at the doctor. “The pain cream worked great. It took about 30 minutes to really kick in, but he started feeling better pretty quickly.”

“So, he’s allowing you to get close to him?” Loki asked as he took the cup of tea Kaitlyn offered him.

“Allowing me? Dude, he lets me play with Leonis. I was actually kinda scratching on his head this morning.”

This caused Loki to raise his eyebrows and give Kaitlyn a knowing look. “And here you didn’t think we’d find a dragon for him.”

“No, I didn’t think we’d find a dragon who would tolerate how much he talks…Let alone one so quickly _or_ one who’s been aggressive towards every other caretaker.”

“They do seem to be complete opposites.” Loki mused and then softly laughed. “Well, I won’t claim to know what goes on in Regulus’ mind.”

“Wait, what are you two talking about?” Dustin side eyed the two.

“Regulus Pack Bonded to you and I think you did the same. Dragons don’t typically allow others to touch their heads, and the right is reserved for those they trust, are of higher rank than them, or they’ve mated to. Combining that with how he lets you care for his daughter? I think you should be his permanent caretaker.” Loki replied before laughing at Dustin’s expression. “I owe Clayton some money because he said it’d happen. In the scheme of things, it’s a good thing. It brings stability for him, and you don’t have to constantly try to figure out the quirks of new dragons.”

He sat there for a moment, not entirely sure what to think, especially since it seemed to happen pretty quickly. “But isn’t that a bit quick? I’ve only been his caretaker for three days now.”

“There really isn’t a set time frame. Some dragons are very picky with who they Pack Bond with, others will Pack Bond with just about anyone. Evidently, there’s just something about you that Regulus liked. Truthfully, I wouldn’t worry about it and use it to your advantage when it comes to his care.” Then, Loki quietly sighed. “Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to locate Leonis’ mother and I’m not sure we will. I’ve been able to trace Regulus’ bill of sale back to his prior owner. It’s not uncommon for a broker to handle the sales for a cut of the money.”

“Do you think she’s dead?” Kaitlyn asked, frowning.

“No, I think she was human. Much like humans, dragons can interbreed with a variety of species. However, the pairings often don’t last very long due to dragon parenting instincts. Drakes tends to get very protective of their mate and unborn child, to the point of being aggressively possessive. While it’s not an issue for dragons, other species tend to see it as a bit of a red flag.” Finally, Loki shrugged. “The only one who likely knows for sure would be Regulus.”

“I can maybe see about asking him.” Dustin commented. “He’ll answer yes and no questions. I haven’t really asked him anything personal, just kept it to his care.”

“If you could ask him and get an answer, that would be great. I don’t want to waste resources trying to find Leonis’ mother if she was human and left willingly.” After taking a sip of his tea, Loki focused back on then two. “Otherwise, it sounds like he’s doing quite well. Kaitlyn, is there anything else concerning his care?”

“No. I’ll be pulling his antibiotic at the end of the week if his shoulder looks good. Otherwise, we’re doing the last few bits of work on the living area that’ll be his. Then it’ll just be waiting on him being healthy enough to be moved.”

Loki slowly nodded as he made a few notes on his tablet before looking back to Dustin. “That’s everything. You can go, if you wish. I’m just going to discuss the other dragons with Kaitlyn, now. I wanted you present to talk about Regulus and Leonis.”

“Will, do. Tell Clayton I said ‘hi’, will you?” After being given a nod, Dustin grabbed the remains of his sandwich and started back to Regulus’ enclosure. Thankfully, he got there just as it started to rain, but immediately felt concerned at Leonis making an alarmed sound at a clap of thunder. Crouching down, he scooped her up and frowned when she all but clung to him. “Hey, it’s okay.”

Looking to Regulus, he frowned. “Where do you want her?”

When the drake indicated next to him, Dustin moved over and suddenly squawked when Regulus nudged him down to the ground. “What, you want me here, too?”

The expectant look he was given said ‘yes’. After settling himself on the ground against the area between Regulus’ shoulder and lower neck, he tugged Leonis into his lap. Then he made another startled noise when he found a wing flopped over him. “Heh, nap time, huh?”

Regulus made a soft rumble in reply and closed his eyes. Honestly, Dustin couldn’t argue against it. Between the soft bedding, the sound of rain, and the warmth from the dragon next to him? He felt sleepy, too.


	8. Step by Step

Truthfully, Dustin found that he liked being permanently assigned to Regulus and Leonis. It went beyond Leonis being absolutely adorable and Regulus needing the help to care for her. No, he liked that fact that he didn’t have to attend the early meetings at the start of the week. He wasn’t being rotated around, so he didn’t need to find out what dragon he’d be caring for and brush up on their history, he didn’t have to review the Honey-Do List his assigned dragons would have, and anything pressing that needed to be done would be sent as a message.

Which is why he stood outside Regulus’ pen, waiting for Kaitlyn. The doctor wanted to examine the drake’s shoulder to see if he could be pulled off the antibiotic, take a blood sample to insure he was doing well, and attempt a physical on Leonis. Honestly, the third thing probably wouldn’t happen with how protective Regulus could be when it came to the dragonet. Once she finally arrived, Dustin gave her a bit of a smile. “I always hand feed Leonis, so that’s probably the best time for you to check her over, if Regulus is okay with it.”

“Have you been able to find out anything about Leonis’ mother?” Kaitlyn glanced over at him as she followed him into the pen.

“Just that she wasn’t a dragon, but he’s not really interested in answering questions. Either way, I guess that’s the important thing since it means that Loki can redirect his resources into finding other dragons.” He was about to continue but snapped his mouth shut when a toddler bolted over to him, jabbering away in some language he didn’t recognize. It took him a moment to realize that Leonis had shifted into her human form. He cracked a slight grin and tugged off his jacket to wrap her up in it; he didn’t want her to chill since she wasn’t wearing anything.

“Well, aren’t you adorable?” He quietly cooed and picked a twig out of her dark, curled, and quite frizzy hair. She was a bit darker skinned than he was, which made him wonder what Regulus would end up looking like. Dustin couldn’t help but snort at the mental image that came to mind, specifically a man who had a near permanent scowl on his face…If the drake’s personality was any indication.

Kaitlyn softly laughed at Leonis who had snuggled down against Dustin’s chest. “She is…And she looks healthy. The fluff can make it hard to get a good idea of their weight, but she looks good. Bright eyed and definitely energetic. Let me see her a moment so I can look her over.”

However, as soon as she reached for the dragonet, a harsh warning bark came from the shelter where Regulus watched them hawkishly. Immediately, Kaitlyn held up her hands and stepped away from Dustin and Leonis. “I just want to check her over. With the shape you’re in, I want to make sure she’s doing okay. That way, if she needs any vitamins, she can get them now instead of later when the deficiency starts causing issues.”

After a moment, Regulus finally huffed out a sigh and nodded, prompting Kaitlyn to relax a bit before pointing at the shelter. “Let’s take her in there, that way he can see what we’re doing and you can feed her once I’m done.”

“The idea of giving her raw meat is weird.” Dustin commented as Kaitlyn took over the food trailer that trailed behind them. “I mean…It’s easier to see them eating it as dragons, but I’m still having a hard time associating them as actually being a human.”

“Stop trying to see them as human, is the simplest answer…Because they’re neither human or animal, but both. I know that doesn’t help, but…The truth is, they’re going to have animalistic behavior regardless of what form they’re in.” Kaitlyn suddenly laughed. “My husband will absolutely melt when I scratch him under the jaw, regardless of what form he’s in. I won’t lie, it was a steep learning curve…Especially when I’d get up in the middle of the night to find him eating raw meat out of a bowl and watching the holo. There’s a house rule that he has to brush his teeth before he kisses me.”

Dustin couldn’t help but laugh at that as he sat down in the shavings. “Okay, yeah, I can’t blame you with that. What was that language that she was speaking, earlier? General kiddo babble or something else?”

Crouching down next to the two, Kaitlyn started quickly taking Leonis’ vitals. “Sounded like a combination of kid babble and the dragon’s native tongue. There’s a few different dialects, plus the common language. It’s likely that Regulus was teaching it to her so it wouldn’t be lost since he clearly knows Basic.”

It didn’t take long for Leonis to start squirming and making a grabby hand at the bucket of food. When she wasn’t immediately released, she suddenly chomped down on Dustin’s arm, prompting a yelp of surprise. However, Regulus made a sharp snort causing her to pop her head up and go wide eyed before she abruptly shifted and slinked back to him with her stomach nearly dragging the shavings.

“You alright?” Kaitlyn gently took Dustin’s arm to examine where he’d been bitten.

“Just surprised me, that’s all. I don’t think she broke the skin, but it sounds like she got into trouble for that.”

“Yeah, you’ll be okay.” Standing back up, Kaitlyn turned to face Regulus. “Okay. Your daughter looks great and I couldn’t find anything that would need anything further intervention on my part. Now, it’s your turn. I want to look at your shoulder to see if we can stop giving you the antibiotic and if I need to remove any stitches. They’re _supposed_ to dissolve, but sometimes they don’t fully dissolve. Finally, I want to take a blood sample. Because of how underweight you were when you arrived, we’ve been giving you vitamin supplements. I just want to see if you’ve improved or if the doses need to be increased.”

After Regulus nodded, she grabbed her bag of supplies and smiled slightly when he shifted more onto his side, then moved his wing so she could get to the injury. “I appreciate that. The fact that you’re getting more movement in your wing is a good sign. The plan is that once your shoulder heals enough, that you start a bit of physical therapy. That would mostly be walking around, stretches, moving your wing and leg in certain directions. Then, once you get a bit more weight on you, moving you to one of the living areas. We already have one of the larger ones set aside for you since you likely don’t want to join a community on account of your daughter.”

Dustin was quick to chime in as he fed Leonis. “If you want to join a community, that’s perfectly fine. It’s all up to you. But…Considering where you came from, figured you’d enjoy the quiet and some privacy, y’know?”

Regulus quietly sighed and nodded at Dustin’s statement, then glanced at Kaitlyn when the doctor made an excited sound. She sat up straight and looked to Dustin with a massive grin on her face. “He’s growing new feathers around his injury.”

“So…That’s good?”

“It’s excellent. It means the infection is gone. Breakfast will be his last dose of antibiotic, and it also means I can start tapering down his sedative, as well. He has a few stitches I need to remove, so once I’ve finished, you’ll probably want to put some pain cream on his shoulder. Otherwise, I’ll draw a blood sample and talk to Rusty about Regulus starting physical therapy. Keep an eye on your messages, Dustin, you’ll end up having a meeting so we can explain what you’ll need to do.” Kaitlyn shifted her attention back to Regulus’ shoulder to start work on the stitches.

The doctor’s grin was not only rare but infectious and Dustin couldn’t help but grin, too, as he looked over to Regulus. “Hey, man, we’ll get you out of here in no time. You’ll love the living area. It’s a nice apartment attached to a shelter like this that has climate controls, and you get like 50 acres to wander around on.”

Looking down at Leonis, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes as she slowly oozed out of his lap and into the shavings as she made her content, freshly fed, grunts. “Hey, Kaitlyn, is it alright if I give Regulus his food, or do you want me to wait until you get your blood sample?”

“You can go ahead and give him his food. The labs I’ll be running don’t require fasting.”

After grabbing two buckets of food, he walked over to Regulus and started pulling out the fish. “Alrighty. Here’s the one that has your meds in it. Bet you’re happy to be done with them.”

“Dustin, where do you keep the pain cream for his shoulder? Since you’re busy feeding him, I’ll just put it on for you.” Once she’d been directed to it, Kaitlyn grabbed it and returned to the drake’s shoulder. “He might have a bit of tenderness since two of the stitches were being stubborn, but he should be fine by tomorrow, or even later this evening.”

He nodded as he held a fish by the tail while Regulus gnawed on it. “Sounds good. Would it be okay for him to start moving around? He’s been taking it easy except for when he needs a drink or goes to the bathroom.”

“I’d encourage it, actually. His healing looks like it’s finally kicking back in, so there isn’t much reason for him to taking it easy. I’m not saying that he should be chasing down animals or hunting, but walking around shouldn’t be a problem.” Looking to Regulus, she gave him a slightly stern look. “That being said, if your shoulder starts bothering you, take a break. It’s still healing.”

Regulus huffed out a snort and nosed the container of fish, causing Dustin to laugh and give him another. “Well, just let me know what you and Rusty decide.”

Kaitlyn held up a vial of blood. “I’m done here. It shouldn’t take too long for the tests to run, and if he needed to be upped on any of his supplements, I’ll swing by around dinner to let you know.”

“Sounds good, Boss.” He gave her a slight salute and went back to feeding Regulus.

When evening rolled around, Dustin held Leonis and quietly sang to her; the dragonet sleepily blinked and yawned before snuggling down in his arms. However, the sight of Kaitlyn stepping into the shelter caused him to stop. “Regulus needs more supplements?”

“His B12 is a bit low, so I came to give him an injection. I heard you singing…What language is that? I’ve never heard it before.” She asked as she crouched down next to Regulus to prep a spot on his back leg.

“Oh. That was Spanish. When I'd visit my grandparents, my grandma used to sing it to me when I was a kid.” At her slightly confused look, he added, “I’m Puerto Rican.”

“I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of either of those. Which planet are you from, again?”

“Tex...Earth…Terra.” Sometimes, Dustin forgot that people out in space knew next to nothing about Earth.

“I see. Well, she seems to like it.” She glanced up at Regulus who gave her a sleepy look. “All done. Don’t worry, it’s just a weekly shot, but I doubt you’ll need more than two or three since this was largely caused by the antibiotic.”

“Yeah, she was being fussy and wanting attention while Regulus was napping. So, I just wanted to keep her occupied without waking him up.” With the drake awake, Dustin made an aborted move to let Leonis go, but quietly laughed upon realizing that she’d straight up conked out. “Guess I’m stuck here for a bit.”

“Alright, well, have fun with that.”

The injection had left a dull ache in his hip, but he didn’t mind. Thus far, the people here had kept their word and had only been interested in his and Pup’s health. It made him more willing to let them tend to his health than when he’d first arrived. Of course, he was still touchy about people being around Pup, but that was just his nature. The sleepy coo that came from his daughter caused him to look over to Dustin who still held her. After a moment longer, he slowly pushed himself up to his feet.

Walking would help with the ache, and he looked forward to the notion of being able to move around again. Of course, he heeded the doctor’s words and moved slowly; the lingering soreness in his shoulder encouraged this. Still, he could put more weight on his leg than he’d been able to since arriving and it felt _nice_ to be able to move. Slowly, he meandered to the wall and began walking alongside it, just so he could stretch his limbs.

Quite suddenly, Pup ran up to him and a few moments later was followed by Dustin. He paused to observe the two for a moment and continued walking. Unsurprisingly, the man joined his side. “Just remember to take it easy. You’ve improved a fucking ton, and I don’t want you to backslide.”

He couldn’t help but huff and roll his eyes in annoyance, but the concern wasn’t unfounded nor entirely unwanted. It was the first time in literal years that someone had given a damn about him, beyond what he could win them in prize money. While he still found it strange, he’d also come to like the feeling. It only cemented his initial thought that the Sanctuary would be a good place for Pup to grow up. She’d be safe and clearly well cared for.

By the time he’d looped back to the shelter, he felt exhausted and out of breath. Next to him, Dustin had a concerned expression on his face and all but hovered till he finally laid down. “I think that was a bit too much for you, Big Guy. But at least I’ll be able to report back to Kaitlyn and let her know so we can figure out your physical therapy plan.”

He merely yawned and laid his head down, then focused on Dustin as the man sat down next to him. It still surprised him when the top of his head was scratched, but he couldn’t deny that it felt good. After a few moments, he felt himself relax and his vision slowly unfocused. The walk had exhausted him more than he anticipated and he quickly dozed off.


End file.
